Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

CS34 Trophic Dynamics

Date: Friday, February 16, 2001, Time: 11:15:00 AM

Location: Mesilla

Richardson, T, L, Texas A&M University, Dept. of Oceanography, College Station, TX, USA, tammi@ocean.tamu.edu

Jackson, G, A, Texas A&M University, Dept. of Oceanography, College Station, TX, USA, jackson@halodule.tamu.edu

Burd, A, B, Texas A&M University, Dept. of Oceanography, College Station,TX, USA, aburd@ocean.tamu.edu

INVERSE ANALYSIS OF CARBON FLOWS THROUGH THE PLANKTONIC FOOD WEB OF FLORIDA BAY

Florida Bay is a shallow ecosystem that provides habitat and nursery areas for many commercially important fish and invertebrates. We used inverse modeling to characterize flows of carbon through the planktonic food web of two regions of Florida Bay. The Eastern region has a mixed phytoplankton community and generally low productivity and biomass, while the North Central region is characterized by sporadic blooms of picoplanktonic cyanobacteria. Our models include compartments for bacteria, small and large phytoplankton, protozoa (<63 um), microzooplankton (63-200 um), and mesozooplankton (>200 um). Predicted flows of carbon differed depending on the dietary preferences of the zooplankton. In the Eastern region, low export to the benthos (~8 mgC/m3/d) was predicted by models where the diet of the protozoa was satisfied by small phytoplankton and detritus. Constraining the protozoan diet to include bacteria resulted in a required import of ~2 mgC/m3/d to fuel planktonic productivity. Predicted export of carbon from the North Central region was higher than in the Eastern region (120 mgC/m3/d) but this export was reduced in models that included bacteria in the protozoan diet.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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