Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Aggregations of predators and prey affect predation impact of the Arctic ctenophore Mertensia ovum

2012; Inter-Research; Volume: 476; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3354/meps10143

1616-1599

Sanna Majaneva, Jørgen Berge, PE Renaud, Anna Vader, Eike Stübner, AM Rao, Ø Sparre, Maiju Lehtiniemi,

Marine Ecology and Invasive Species

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 476:87-100 (2013) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10143 Aggregations of predators and prey affect predation impact of the Arctic ctenophore Mertensia ovum S. Majaneva1,2,3,*, J. Berge1,4, P. E. Renaud1,5, A. Vader1, E. Stübner1, A. M. Rao1, Ø. Sparre1,4, M. Lehtiniemi3 1The University Centre in Svalbard, 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway 2Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland 3Finnish Environment Institute/Marine Research Centre, 00251 Helsinki, Finland 4Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, University of Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway 5Akvaplan-niva, Fram Centre for Climate and Environment, 9296 Tromsø, Norway *Email: sanna.majaneva@gmail.com ABSTRACT: The importance of gelatinous zooplankton in marine systems is increasingly recognized, but little is known about its role in the Arctic pelagic food web or about the way patchiness affects these ecological interactions. We studied the influence of the spatial patchiness of predators and prey on the predation impact of the Arctic ctenophore Mertensia ovum, using a combination of feeding experiments, gut content analyses and net sampling, together with aggregation estimations. A nonlinear functional response was detected for M. ovum feeding on Calanus spp. Ingestion rates at low prey densities were comparable with previous studies (1 ± 0.2 prey predator-1 h-1), but increased significantly at higher prey densities (6 ± 2.5 prey predator-1 h-1). We estimated that M. ovum is capable of consuming on average 1.4% d-1 of the Calanus spp. population in the whole water column, or 33% in the upper 20 m layer, when assuming even distributions of prey and predators. Most importantly, ingestion rates did not significantly decline at high predator aggregations; hence, predation impact increased considerably when predator and prey aggregations were considered. However, feeding saturation was observed at high prey densities, suggesting that copepods may create a refuge by forming dense patches. These are significant consumption rates given that Calanus spp. comprises an important part of the Arctic marine food web. Studying the patterns of fine-scale distribution of these gelatinous predators should be emphasized in order to adequately model prey-predator interactions. KEY WORDS: Predation impact · Patchiness · Comb jelly · Functional response · Gut content analysis · Arctic Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Majaneva S, Berge J, Renaud PE, Vader A and others (2013) Aggregations of predators and prey affect predation impact of the Arctic ctenophore Mertensia ovum. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 476:87-100. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10143 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 476. Online publication date: February 27, 2013 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research.