- Increased knowledge of the invisible part of the marine ecosystem is important. marine science It

The sea teems with copepods as Oithona. (Photo: Camilla marine science Svensen) Oithona marine science is not big and soft like a polar bear, have shiny eyes like a baby seal or the spectacular appearance of a whale.
- Jump Crayfish are the most numerous multicellular animals on Earth, and their number exceeds even the insects, says Associate Professor marine science Camilla Svensen at the University of Tromsø.
- The cornerstone of the marine food web consists of these numerous microorganisms which we also call the zooplankton. Not only plankton forms the basis for sea life - they also affect major global cycle as the carbon cycle. marine science
Svensen is a researcher in marine and arctic biology and has recently received a Fulbright Arctic Chair Scholarship. The scholarship will allow her to conduct research in seven months at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, USA.
- I will investigate how some of the smaller zooplankton may affect the marine food web by producing dissolved carbon. Such effects have previously been shown for other species, but to my knowledge it has not been done for Oithona.
- Since this is one of the smallest copepods there are some challenges associated with research on the animal. I hope to have developed a method of Scripps reusable Oithona.
- Former talk of a linear food chain consisting marine science of phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish. Now we talk about rather complex microbial network where bacteria, unicellular algae and zooplankton interact. Here both produced and consumed dissolved organic carbon, says Svensen
Living organisms, from bacteria to whales, utilize organic carbon as energy. But while whales feed on carbon in the form of fish and plankton, sucking bacteria to the carbon in liquid form. Dissolved carbon is an important component of the global marine science carbon cycle and one of the largest stocks of organic carbon in soil.
- Put less scientifically marine science bacteria one of the few organisms that eat with a spoon instead marine science of a fork. In the ocean there are primarily those that feed on dissolved carbon.
In Svensens project, she will examine whether zooplankton as Oithona also be significant producers of dissolved carbon - and thus have a stronger connection to the ocean's microbial food webs than expected.
- Increased knowledge of the invisible part of the marine ecosystem is important. marine science It is an important element in the carbon cycle and therefore plays a role in CO2 uptake from the atmosphere. It is also forms the economic basis for higher trophic levels such as fish.
Temperature rise and melting of sea ice could cause the ecosystem in different directions, and one of the projections is increased bacterial production and increased importance of microbial food webs.
So 1350 000 000 000 000 000 000 copepods!
Spiders dancer not to be eaten
How talking marine science doctor and patient together?
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