Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Uttieri, M., Nihongi, A., Hinow, P., Motschman, J., Jiang, H., Alcaraz, M., & Strickler, J. R. (2019). Copepod manipulation of oil droplet size distribution AU uttieri, M nihongi, A hinow, P motschman, J jiang, H alcaraz, M strickler, JR. Scientific Reports, 9, 547 , doi:10.1038/s41598-018-37020-9.
Description:
Oil spills are one of the most dangerous sources of pollution in aquatic ecosystems. Owing to their pivotal position in the food web, pelagic copepods can provide crucial intermediary transferring oil between trophic levels. In this study we show that the calanoid Paracartia grani can actively modify the size-spectrum of oil droplets. Direct manipulation through the movement of the feeding appendages and egestion work in concert, splitting larger droplets (Ø = 16 µm) into smaller ones (Ø = 4–8 µm). The copepod-driven change in droplet size distribution can increase the availability of oil droplets to organisms feeding on smaller particles, sustaining the transfer of petrochemical compounds among different compartments. These results raise the curtain on complex small-scale interactions which can promote the understanding of oil spills fate in aquatic ecosystems.
Description:
This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. Data are publicly available through the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information & Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) at https://data.gulfresearchinitiative.org (doi: 10.7266/N7H70CV7). MU was sponsored by the MOKA project (Modelling and Observation of zooplanKtonic orgAnisms; ID: RBFR10VF6M) financed by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, and by SZN internal grant. PH was supported by the Simons Foundation grant “Collaboration on Mathematical Biology” (278436). JM was the financed by the Support for Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) and the Center for International Education (CIE), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. HJ was supported by NSF grant no. OCE-1433979. MA was funded by the Spanish research project TOPCOP
(CTM2011–23480, from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, and 2009SGR-1283 from the Catalan Government). MU thanks Mark Pottek for the design of the MOKA project cartoon, and UWM for hospitality during a research stay in January 2017 supported by Simons Foundation (grant to PH). The authors have no competing interests. No ethical considerations apply. All symbols provided in Fig. 2 courtesy of the Integration and Application Network, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (ian.umces.edu/symbols/).
Keywords:
Ecosystem ecology
;
Marine biology
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
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