ZHAO Yuan, ZHAO Li, DONG Yi, et al. The Function of Marine Pelagic Microbial Food Web Organisms in Marine Particle Formation and Sedimentation. [J]. Studia Marina Sinica 24(52):null(2017)
DOI:
ZHAO Yuan, ZHAO Li, DONG Yi, et al. The Function of Marine Pelagic Microbial Food Web Organisms in Marine Particle Formation and Sedimentation. [J]. Studia Marina Sinica 24(52):null(2017) DOI: 10.12036/hykxjk20170822002.
The Function of Marine Pelagic Microbial Food Web Organisms in Marine Particle Formation and Sedimentation
In addition to living organisms, there are a lot of non-living particles in seawater. These non-living particles include classical particles (referred to as particles without special definition) with a fixed shape and new particles (referred to as aggregates) without a fixed shape. When a new particle is extracted from seawater, the water inside the particle drains and the particle collapses. New particles are divided into macroaggregates, microaggregates, and submicron particles according to their size. These particles form a habitat that is different from pure seawater. Different organisms inhabit the surface and the space between these particles with greater abundance than those found in seawater. The role of marine pelagic microbial food web organisms in the formation, transformation, and sedimentation of particles is reviewed in this paper. Bacteria and microzooplankton help form aggregates, while microzooplankton produce miniparticles through defecation. Bacteria inhabit particles to use organic carbon. Cyanobacteria adhere to these particles. With an increase in the volume of particles, some cyanobacteria are packaged into them. Microzooplankton are attracted to particles for grazing. These organisms could help particles grow by adhering to them and, simultaneously, diminish the size of the particle (or even break it apart) by converting the POC into DOC and the grazing effect. Although organisms in the microbial food web are too small to sediment quickly, they could significantly contribute to the carbon flux to the deep sea possibly through interaction with particles.