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Project details
Title: | National Facility External Users: M. Taylor (UNSW) |
Id: | 2373 |
Acronym: | National Facility External User: M. Taylor (UNSW) |
Investigator(s): | Matt Taylor
University of New South Wales - Centre for Marine Science [details] |
Description: | |
Years: | 2010 |
List of surveys that this project was on.
Use [details] link to view survey details (map, reports, metadata etc) including links to download data.
Survey | Investigator | Description |
---|---|---|
SS2010_V08 [details] |
M Taylor (UNSW) | Southern Surveyor Research Voyage SS2010_V08. Krill in 3-D - Vertical stratification and spatial distribution of krill communities in the East Australian Current. Scientific Objectives Marine predator-prey relationships should remain within certain boundary conditions (Michener and Kaufman, 2007), but few examples consider interspecific interactions in planktonic communities in pelagic marine ecosystems (Hairston et al., 1960; Schlosser, 1982). These ecosystems are often structured with high species diversity at lower and higher trophic levels, but a lower diversity of secondary consumers at mid trophic levels (i.e. a wasp-waist ecosystem, Bakun, 2006), such as pelagic fishes. Euphausiids (krill) likely represent an invertebrate analogue to pelagic fishes in these systems (Bakun, 2006), but this concept is yet to be explored. Competition between larval euphausiids and abundant primary consumers capable of dominating ecosystem resources (i.e. salps) likely control the progression toward a wasp-waist structure, and these competitive interactions are potentially mediated by connection between epipelagic and mesopelagic food webs. The epipelagic and mesopelagic zones of the ocean are defined as 0 to100 m (euphotic zone) and 100 to 1000 m depth respectively. Greater than 90% of the organic matter exported from the epipelagic zone is remineralised into nutrients, microelements and CO2 in the mesopelagic zone, and returned to the surface on decadal scales or less (Karl et al., 2008). The mesopelagic zone therefore significantly dampens the downward transfer of organic matter to the deep ocean, and acts as a positive feedback to global warming. Despite their importance in understanding the efficiency of the biological pump, little is known about the processes that control the remineralisation of CO2 in the mesopelagic zone, or its regional variation. These are considered to be related to the structure of, and relationship between, the epipelagic and mesopel |