Distribution of and Feeding by the Copepod Pseudocalanus Under Fast Ice During the Arctic Spring

• DOI: 10.1126/science.232.4755.1245
• Publication Date: 2006-10-05T20:28:52Z
• Authors: R. J. Conover; A. W. Herman; S. J. Prinsenberg; L. R. Harris
• Keywords: 14. Life underwater; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

The arctic copepod Pseudocalanus can be highly aggregated in the first few centimeters under landfast ice during spring in concentrations up to 10 6 per cubic meter. Chlorophyll-derived pigments in the water, the abundance of animals, and their gut pigment index show fluctuations that may be tidally related. Short-term grazing experiments performed at -1.7°C, in which ice algae was used as food, yielded feeding rates comparable to the highest known for the genus. Arctic Pseudocalanus seem to feed opportunistically near the ice-water interface, either directly on the attached epontic (under ice) algae or as it erodes from the ice.