Patterns of sarcodine feeding in epipelagic oceanic plankton

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Abstract
The range of in situ prey composition was determined in marine planktonic acantharia, foraminifera and radiolana collected by divers, and quantitatively compared with the prey available, as determined by surface plankton hauls on cruises in the Florida Current, Gulf Stream and Sargasso Sea. A relatively large percentage of the sarcodines (60% of acantharia, 48% of foraminifera and 46% of radiolana) had no detectable prey Of those which had fed on identifiable prey, there was considerable overlap between sarcodine species m the types of prey captured. Nevertheless, some partitioning of food resources was evident Foraminifera consumed greater numbers of diatoms and copepods than other prey types, radiolana consumed more tintinnids and mollusc larvae, and acantharia consumed mostly tintinnids. Copepods and their nauplii dominated the biomass consumed for all three groups, though mollusc larvae were significant for both acantharia and radiolana. The results of parameteric univariate statistical analyses earned out on each major predator group and multivariate analysis on a species-by-speaes basis confirmed that there was evidence for some partitioning of prey resources among the major sarcodine predators. The partitioning appeared to follow primarily morphological rather than taxonomic criteria, however, and may have been at least partially a mechanical effect.

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