Implications for the mesopelagic microbial gardening hypothesis as determined by experimental fragmentation of Antarctic krill fecal pellets.

ABSTRACT: Detritivores need to upgrade their food to increase its nutritional value. One method is to fragment detritus promoting the colonization of nutrient-rich microbes, which consumers then ingest along with the detritus; so-called microbial gardening. Observations and numerical models of the detritus-dominated ocean mesopelagic zone have suggested microbial gardening by zooplankton is a fundamental process in the ocean carbon cycle leading to increased respiration of carbon-rich detritus. However, no experimental evidence exists to demonstrate that microbial respiration rates are higher on recently fragmented sinking detrital particles.Using aquaria-reared Antarctic krill fecal pellets, we showed fragmentation increased microbial particulate organic carbon (POC) turnover by 1.9×, but only on b

SUBMITTER: Cavan EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7820144 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature