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Marine Biology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Marine Biology

The Feeding Ecology And Microbiome Of The Pteropod Limacina Helicina Antarctica, Patricia S. Thibodeau, Bongkeun Song, Carly M. Moreno, Deborah K. Steinberg Jan 2022

The Feeding Ecology And Microbiome Of The Pteropod Limacina Helicina Antarctica, Patricia S. Thibodeau, Bongkeun Song, Carly M. Moreno, Deborah K. Steinberg

VIMS Articles

The pteropod (pelagic snail) Limacina helicina antarctica is a dominant grazer along
the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and plays an important role in regional food web dynamics and biogeochemical cycling. For the first time, we examined the gut microbiome and feeding ecology of L. h. antarctica based on 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequences of gut contents in the WAP during austral summer. Eukaryotic gut contents of L. h. antarctica indicate that this species predominantly feeds on diatoms and dinoflagellates, supplementing its diet with ciliates and foraminifera. Mollicutes bacteria were a consistent component of the gut microbiome. Determining the gut …


Long-Term Observations Of Pteropod Phenology Along The Western Antarctic Peninsula, Patrica S. Thibodeau, Deborah K. Steinberg, Colleen E. Mcbride, John A. Conroy, Hugh W. Ducklow Dec 2020

Long-Term Observations Of Pteropod Phenology Along The Western Antarctic Peninsula, Patrica S. Thibodeau, Deborah K. Steinberg, Colleen E. Mcbride, John A. Conroy, Hugh W. Ducklow

VIMS Articles

Shifts in phenology – annually occurring life history events – have been observed among many marine organisms due to global warming. We examined if phenological changes in the pteropod (pelagic snail) Limacina helicina antarctica have occurred along the Western Antarctic Peninsula, one of the most intensely warming regions on Earth, which would have important implications for regional food web dynamics. Pteropod shell diameters were analyzed from samples collected in the Palmer Antarctica Long-Term Ecological Research (PAL LTER) program year-round sediment trap from 2004 to 2018. There was considerable interannual variability in the time of appearance of a new pteropod cohort, …


Zooplankton Diel Vertical Migration During Antarctic Summer, John A. Conroy, Deborah K. Steinberg, Patrica S. Thibodeau, Oscar Schofield Jun 2020

Zooplankton Diel Vertical Migration During Antarctic Summer, John A. Conroy, Deborah K. Steinberg, Patrica S. Thibodeau, Oscar Schofield

VIMS Articles

Zooplankton diel vertical migration (DVM) during summer in the polar oceans is presumed to be dampened due to near continuous daylight. We analyzed zooplankton diel vertical distribution patterns in a wide range of taxa along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) to assess if DVM occurs, and if so, what environmental controls modulate DVM in the austral summer. Zooplankton were collected during January and February in paired day-night, depth-stratified tows through the mesopelagic zone along the WAP from 2009-2017, as well as in day and night epipelagic net tows from 1993-2017. The copepod Metridia gerlachei, salp Salpa thompsoni, pteropod …