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JPR Advance Access first published online on March 4, 2009
This version published online on March 10, 2009
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbp014
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Contribution of auto- and heterotrophic protozoa to the diet of copepods in the Ulleung Basin, East Sea/Japan Sea

Eun Jin Yang1,*, Hyung-Ku Kang2, Sinjae Yoo2 and Jung-Ho Hyun3

1 Deep-Sea and Marine Georesources Research Department, Kordi, Ansan PO Box 29, Seoul 425-600, Korea 2 Marine Living Resource Research Department, Kordi, Ansan PO Box 29, Seoul 425-600, Korea 3 Department of Environmental and Marine Science, Hanyang University, Ansan 426-791, Korea

* CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: ejyang{at}kordi.re.kr

Received on October 17, 2008; accepted on February 6, 2009


  Abstract

We estimated the ingestion rates and prey selectivity of two calanoid copepods, Calanus sinicus and Neocalanus plumchrus, on auto- and heterotrophic protozoa in the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea/Japan Sea. Both copepod species preferentially ingested auto- and heterotrophic protozoa. The heterotrophic protozoa comprised between 42.9 and 86.7% of the total carbon ration ingested by the copepods, although they comprised on average 21.5% of the total available prey carbon. In particular, ciliates comprised the major dietary component for the copepods in the study area. The copepod consumption of ciliates was on average 38.2% of the total daily carbon ration of auto- and heterotrophic protozoa. Auto- and heterotrophic protozoa in the 20–50 µm size were the fraction that was most actively consumed by copepods and they comprised on average 45.1% of the total carbon ration ingested. In all experiments, the copepods selected the ciliate and heterotrophic dinoflagellate (HDF) groups over the other protozoa. Our results indicate that the copepod feeding regime was influenced by the composition and size of the potential food and that, in this study area, feeding behavior of copepods may control the populations of ciliates and HDFs that are larger than 10 µm in size. Thus, the selective feeding patterns and higher grazing pressure of copepods on heterotrophic protozoa, compared with autotrophic protozoa, indicate a trophic coupling between copepods and the microbial food web in the Ulleung Basin.

Corresponding editor: John Dolan

‘Lie and Hopcroft’ has been changed to ‘Liu and Hopcroft’ throughout. The author apologises for this error.


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