Abstract:

A comparison of microzooplankton communities associated with laboratory-created oiled and non-oiled marine snow.

Suggested Citation:

Du Clos, Kevin, Hailley Nieves, and Brad Gemmell. 2020. Microzooplankton communities associated with oiled marine snow. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/DMXRAXTZ

Purpose:

To investigate the microzooplankton communities associated with oiled and non-oiled marine snow.

Data Parameters and Units:

video files, number of organisms (counts)

Methods:

Seawater was collected from Tampa Bay, Florida USA, on 2019-02-07, 2019-02-21, 2019-03-07. During this time water temperature ranged from 11 to 20˚C. Salinity was measured with a refractometer and ranged from 25 to 22 practical salinity unit (PSU). On each collection date, collected seawater was filtered through a 200 µm nitrex mesh sieve to remove larger mesozooplankton, and F/2 phytoplankton culture nutrients were added at half concentration. Three glass bottles each for the control and oil treatments were filled to the top with seawater with nutrients, for a final volume of ~1200 ml. For the oil treatment, 12 ml Deepwater Horizon surrogate oil was added to each partially filled bottle, which was then filled to the top. Bottles were incubated on rollers with slow rotation (~1 rpm) for 7 days with a 10:14 hour light:dark cycle. After 7 days, marine snow aggregates were carefully transferred to new bottles with freshly collected seawater amended with half-concentration F/2 nutrients and incubated for an additional 72 hours under the same conditions as before to allow natural plankton assemblages to interact with the marine snow. Marine snow aggregates were slowly transferred to petri dishes using a 10 ml serological pipette with the tip removed to minimize aggregate breakup due to shearing. Each dish was partially filled with seawater from the top of the bottle to cover the aggregates. Aggregates were filmed at 2000 x 2000-pixel resolution and 60 frames per second using a Photron Fastcam Mini WX camera connected to an Olympus inverted microscope at 10x magnification with phase contrast optics, providing an approximately 2 x 2 mm field of view. For each replicate, videos were recorded from five different areas of the petri dish. Only non-adjacent areas containing aggregates were selected for video recording.

Instruments:

Photron Fastcam Mini WX camera; Olympus inverted microscope

Individual Files: