Importance of mesozooplanckton feeding for the downward flux of biogenetic carbon in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We tested the importance of mesozooplankton feeding and defecation for the downward flux of biogenic carbon (C) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a marine coastal environment characterized by high zooplankton abundance. Five stations were sampled over nine cruises between July 1992 and June 1994. The rates of chlorophyll (Chl) ingestion and C defecation were determined for the major copepod species. Free-drifting, short-term (24 h) sediment traps were deployed at the sampled sites at 50 and 150 m, and the trap contents were analyzed for fecal pellets (microscopy), Chl and pheopigments (chromatography). The flux at 50 m of C associated with fecal pellets ranged between 5 and 138 mg C m-2 d-1, while total POC flux varied between 78 and 302 mg C m-2 d-1. Of the total POC found in sediment traps at 50 m, close to 50%, on average, was composed of zooplankton fecal pellets. In contrast, direct algal (Chl) sinking was <10%. The fecal pellet contribution varied seasonally, with a maximum (>73%) in June 1994 at all stations. This maximum did not necessarily coincide with the highest rate of production of fecal pellets in the surface waters, indicating that other factors influenced the sinking of fecal pellets. A shallow mixed-layer depth seemed to favor fast removal from the surface. The average fecal pellet contribution to the total downward POC flux was slightly higher for stations 4 and 5 (52% compared with 39% for the other stations). These stations were characterized by zooplankton communities that differed from those of the other stations, smaller copepods such as Temora longicornis frequently dominated at stations 4 and 5, Calanus spp. dominated at stations 1, 2 and 6. High fluxes of fecal pellets frequently occurred when the index of herbivory (Chl ingestion : total C ingestion) was low, transferring downwards carbon of heterotrophic origin. The contribution of C-transformed pheopigments to total POC flux was low (6% on average). It co-varied with the degree of herbivory in the overlying waters. The production of fecal pellets in the top 50 m co-varied with Chl ingestion, but not with the index of herbivory, consistent with an algal food intake representing <50% of total C ingested. Phytoplankton ingestion was highest when primary production (not algal biomass) was maximum. In consequence, mesozooplankton feeding did not exert a strong control over the phytoplankton biomass of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (at most 10%), but it was more closely tied to primary production. Phytoplankton biomass is more likely controlled by physical factors in this region. Mesozooplankton fecal pellets contributed significantly to the downward flux of biogenic C all through the year in this environment, transferring alternatively C of autotrophic and heterotrophic origin.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".