Grazing impact of the calanoid copepods Acartia spp. on the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium pseudogonyaulax in the western coastal waters of Korea

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology Vol. 15; p. 1400343
• Main Authors: Lee, Moo Joon, Hwang, Yeong Jong, Choi, Yong Bum, Yoo, Yeong Du
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 19.06.2024
• Subjects: ecology; food web; ingestion; metazooplankton; Microbiology; predator; metazooplankton; ecology; ingestion; food web; predator
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1400343

Marine dinoflagellate species in the genus are well known to produce paralytic shellfish poison as well as common coastal species with cosmopolitan distribution. However, few studies on the feeding of copepods on species have been conducted. The toxic dinoflagellate contains goniodomin A and causes red tides in many countries. To investigate the relationship between the toxic dinoflagellate and the calanoid copepods spp., we quantified the ingestion rates of spp. feeding on as a function of prey concentration. Additionally, we estimated grazing coefficients by integrating data from field observations of spp. and coexisting with laboratory measurements of ingestion rates obtained during this investigation. Furthermore, we compared the ingestion rates of spp. and other predators feeding on species as previously reported. The ingestion rates of spp. on increased continuously with increasing mean prey concentration. The highest values among the ingestion rate of spp. feeding on . was 3,407 cells predator d (4,872 ng C predator d ) at the given prey concentration. The calculated grazing coefficients for spp. on in Shiwha Bay, Korea, were up to 0.073 d . The results of this study suggest that may decrease or maintain the population of spp. in marine food webs.