Departamento de Biología de Organismos y Sistemas, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 23;8(7):e69159. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0069159. Print 2013.
Dilution experiments were performed to estimate phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton grazing rates during two Lagrangian surveys in inner and eastern locations of the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre province (NAST-E). Our design included two phytoplankton size fractions (0.2-5 µm and >5 µm) and five depths, allowing us to characterize differences in growth and grazing rates between size fractions and depths, as well as to estimate vertically integrated measurements. Phytoplankton growth rates were high (0.11-1.60 d(-1)), especially in the case of the large fraction. Grazing rates were also high (0.15-1.29 d(-1)), suggesting high turnover rates within the phytoplankton community. The integrated balances between phytoplankton growth and grazing losses were close to zero, although deviations were detected at several depths. Also, O2 supersaturation was observed up to 110 m depth during both Lagrangian surveys. These results add up to increased evidence indicating an autotrophic metabolic balance in oceanic subtropical gyres.
稀释实验用于估计北大西洋亚热带环流区（NAST-E）内部和东部两个拉格朗日调查期间浮游植物的生长和微型浮游动物的摄食率。我们的设计包括两个浮游植物大小分数（0.2-5 µm 和 >5 µm）和五个深度，使我们能够描述大小分数和深度之间生长和摄食率的差异，并估计垂直综合测量。浮游植物的生长率很高（0.11-1.60 d(-1)），尤其是在大分数的情况下。摄食率也很高（0.15-1.29 d(-1)），表明浮游植物群落中有很高的周转率。浮游植物生长和摄食损失之间的综合平衡接近零，尽管在几个深度上检测到了偏差。此外，在两次拉格朗日调查中，在高达 110 米的深度都观察到了氧气过饱和度。这些结果增加了表明海洋亚热带环流中存在自养代谢平衡的证据。
