Microzooplankton, the missing link in Finnish plankton monitoring programs.

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Date
2018Author
Lipsewers, T.
Spilling, K.
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Finnish plankton monitoring is divided into phytoplankton and mesozooplankton sampling. Using the phytoplankton protocol, we included all organisms identified in samples
from the Baltic Sea during spring (n = 125). The plankton was converted to carbon, and
including all microscopy derived carbon (MDC), increased the carbon content by 22%, on
average, compared with only phytoplankton. Particulate organic carbon (POC) and chlorophyll a (Chl a) were also measured, and the general relationship between MDC and POC
was: slope = 1.04, intercept = 240 µg POC l–1, R2 = 0.66; for phytoplankton to Chl a: 0.037g Chl a (g MDC)–1, R2 = 0.68. Our results demonstrate that a variable fraction of the plankton biomass is not recorded in the monitoring programs. Most of the unaccounted biomass
was ciliates, which constituted 14.1% ± 3.7% (mean ± maximum error) of the plankton
biomass. Based on the results we recommend including microzooplankton in the existing
phytoplankton monitoring program......
Journal
Boreal Environment ResearchVolume
23Page Range
pp.127–137Document Language
enEssential Ocean Variables (EOV)
Phytoplankton biomass and diversityZooplankton biomass and diversity
Best Practice Type
GuideISBN
1797-2469 (online)Citation
Lipsewers, T. and Spilling, K. (2018) Microzooplankton, the missing link in Finnish plankton monitoring programs. Boreal Environment Research, 23, pp.127–137. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25607/OBP-402Collections