Diel vertical migration of Arctic zooplankton during the polar night
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Date
23/02/2009Author
Funder
Grant ID
NE/F012381/1
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Show full item recordAbstract
High-latitude environments show extreme seasonal variation in physical and biological variables. The classic paradigm of Arctic marine ecosystems holds that most biological processes slow down or cease during the polar night. One key process that is generally assumed to cease during winter is diel vertical migration (DVM) of zooplankton. DVM constitutes the largest synchronized movement of biomass on the planet, and is of paramount importance for marine ecosystem function and carbon cycling. Here we present acoustic data that demonstrate a synchronized DVM behaviour of zooplankton that continues throughout the Arctic winter, in both open and ice-covered waters. We argue that even during the polar night, DVM is regulated by diel variations in solar and lunar illumination, which are at intensities far below the threshold of human perception. We also demonstrate that winter DVM is stronger in open waters compared with ice-covered waters. This suggests that the biologically mediated vertical flux of carbon will increase if there is a continued retreat of the Arctic winter sea ice cover.
Citation
Berge , J , Cottier , F , Last , K S , Varpe , O , Leu , E , Soreide , J , Eiane , K , Falk-Petersen , S , Willis , K , Nygard , H , Vogedes , D , Griffiths , C , Johnsen , G , Lorentzen , D & Brierley , A S 2009 , ' Diel vertical migration of Arctic zooplankton during the polar night ' , Biology Letters , vol. 5 , no. 1 , pp. 69-72 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0484
Publication
Biology Letters
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1744-9561Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2008 The Royal Society This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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