Microscale nutrient patches produced by zooplankton

  1. John T. Lehman*,† and
  2. Donald Scavia*,‡
  1. *Division of Biological Sciences, Natural Science Building, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
  2. †Great Lakes Research Division, Natural Science Building, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
  3. ‡National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, 2300 Washtenaw Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

Abstract

Both track autoradiography and grain-density autoradiography show that individual zooplankton create miniature patches of dissolved nutrients and that algae exploit those regions to absorb phosphate. The patches are short lived and can be dispersed artificially by small-scale turbulence. Our data support a simple model of encounters between algae and nutrient plumes produced by swimming zooplankton.

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  1. PNAS 1982-08 vol. 79 no. 16 5001-5005
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