Mixotrophic plankton, which combine the uptake of inorganic resources and the ingestion of living prey, are ubiquitous in marine ecosystems, but their integrated biogeochemical impacts remain unclear. We address this issue by removing the strict distinction between phytoplankton and zooplankton from a global model of the marine plankton food web. This simplification allows the emergence of a re...

We examined the contents of the alimentary tract of juvenile Atlantic menhaden, an obligate filter-feeding fish, with epifluoresence microscopy. All plankton taxa and detrital material observed in plankton samples from the sampling area could also be found in the esophagus of the fish. The corresponding plankton taxa were absent from the pre-feces sampled in the hindgut with the exception of cy...

[1] In an idealized situation of a baroclinically unstable single eddy, we study the impact of eddy-induced mixing on the soft-tissue carbon pump. The new element here is the coupling of a three-dimensional nonhydrostatic ocean model with a physiological plankton model that is able to represent a variable plankton C:N ratio. During the development and breakup of the eddy, a complicated vertical...

Climate change scenarios predict that lake water temperatures will increase up to 4°C and rainfall events will become more intense and frequent by the end of this century. Concurrently, supply of humic substances from terrestrial runoff is expected to increase, resulting in darker watercolor ("brownification") of aquatic ecosystems. Using a multi-seasonal, low trophic state mesocosm experiment,...

This paper analyses long-term and seasonal changes in the North Sea plankton community during the period 1970 to 2008. Based on Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) data covering 38 yr, major changes in both phytoplankton and zooplankton abundance and community structure were identified. Regime changes were detected around 1978, 1989 and 1998. The first 2 changes have been discussed in the litera...

The Sheldon spectrum describes a remarkable regularity in aquatic ecosystems: the biomass density as a function of logarithmic body mass is approximately constant over many orders of magnitude. While size-spectrum models have explained this phenomenon for assemblages of multicellular organisms, this paper introduces a species-resolved size-spectrum model to explain the phenomenon in unicellular...

Water is one of the most natural resources for all the living organisms, weather unicellular or multi cellular, since it is required for various domestic purposes irrigation, power generation and industries. In a freshwater system, the zooplankton forms are important group and constitute basic link of the food chain. Planktons are very sensitive to the environment they live in and any alteratio...

Plankton diversity, physical and chemical variables and chlorophyll a were analyzed in two shallow urban reservoirs with different trophic degrees on Pernambuco State, northeastern Brazil. High eutrophication levels were observed in Apipucos reservoir, while Prata reservoir was considered oligotrophic. Values reported for physical and chemical variables and chlorophyll a differed among the stud...

Plankton communities and macrofauna associated to aquatic macrophyte stands in a shallow water-supply reservoir (21°14'09″S; 48°18'38″W) on an aquaculture farm were compared to evaluate the relationship between organism densities and some abiotic features of the reservoir. Water and communities associated were sampled at two sites, one in an area with the predominance of Eichhornia azurea (Sw.)...

Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) concentrations and profiles in paired sediment-plankton samples were determined along a 500 km transect in coastal British Columbia, Canada. PCB and PBDE levels in sediment were both greater in the industrialized Strait of Georgia than in remote northern sites and exhibited parallel spatial trends. In plankton, recent-use P...