Low oxygen conditions in the water column or hypoxia occur in estuaries and impact more than just the obvious commercially important species. Copepods are an important link in the food web and the influence of hypoxia upon them is relatively unstudied. Using the copepod Acartia tonsa, a study of the impact of hypoxia on egg production and feeding was conducted. A. tonsa decreased egg production at lower dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO), with the lowest egg production occurring at 0.53-ml/l O2 concentration. However as the DO decreased the amount of chlorophyll a in the gut of the copepods increased. Also as DO decreased the number of fecal pellets decreased, indicating that feeding was being suppressed. Another experiment was conducted to determine if by increasing food concentration the affect of hypoxia could be mitigated. The results indicate that increased food did not offset the impact hypoxia has on egg production of A. tonsa. These results suggest that as A. tonsa experiences hypoxia in the wild, population numbers will decrease. Thus if hypoxic conditions increase in scope and duration declines in copepod abundance may very well lead to a decline in the abundance of species that depend on them as food. These species may be of commercial importance. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Oceanography in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2003. / Date of Defense: August 1, 2003. / Acartia Tonsa, Hypoxia, Feeding, Egg Production / Includes bibliographical references. / Nancy Marcus, Professor Directing Thesis; David Thistle, Committee Member; Joel Kostka, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168399 |
| Contributors | Sedlacek, Chris (authoraut), Marcus, Nancy (professor directing thesis), Thistle, David (committee member), Kostka, Joel (committee member), Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds