海洋生物学课件：Zooplankton.pptx

Meroplankton;Zooplankton Meroplankton Meroplankton spend portion of life in plankton; adult stage typically non-planktonic About 70% of benthic marine species have a planktonic stage in their life cycle Planktonic stage of a benthic organism’s life may last minutes to months Presence of particular species in meroplankton typically related to spawning events, often in response to environmental cues (e.g. warmer temperatures in temperate latitudes, rainfall or lunar cycles in tropical waters) Important component of meroplankton is ichthyoplankton, fish eggs and larvae Some fish eggs may be extremely abundant (e.g. 4 x 1014 pilchard eggs in English Channel) and energetically important as food sources for other pelagic organisms Marine organisms with pelagic larvae exhibit two basic strategies for nourishing larval stages;Zooplankton Meroplankton Planktotrophic Eggs relatively small and contain little stored energy Species with planktotrophic development have higher fecundities than species with lecithotrophic development (e.g. plaice - 250,000 eggs, haddock - 500,000 eggs, cod - 1,000,000 eggs) Low per-egg energy investment ? lower per-egg survivorship but vastly greater numbers of propagules for a given reproductive energy investment Survivorship typically very low (e.g. early life mortality in cod estimated at around 99.999%). Planktotrophic larvae feed in plankton, typically have long larval life spans, and may travel very long distances (teleplanic larvae - e.g. coral planula larvae);Zooplankton Meroplankton Lecithotrophic Eggs relatively large and contain substantial stored energy Species with lecithotrophic development have lower fecundities than species with planktotrophic development (typically 1000) High per-egg energy investment ? higher per-egg survivorship but fewer propagules for a given reproductive energy investment Yolk sac typically used to sustain larva while mouth and gut finish developing Lecithotrophic larvae typically do not feed in plankton (thou