The Association between Stomach Fullness and Vertical Migration Behavior in Deep-Pelagic Crustaceans and Fishes in the Gulf of Mexico, with Notes on Microplastic Ingestion
This thesis presents: 1) the first statistically rigorous support for the longstanding hypothesis that state of satiation modifies diel vertical migration patterns of deep-sea micronektonic crustaceans and fishes; and, 2) the first assessment of microplastic ingestion by deep-pelagic micronekton in...
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| Format: | Others |
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NSUWorks
2019
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| Online Access: | https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_stuetd/502 https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1512&context=occ_stuetd |
| Summary: | This thesis presents: 1) the first statistically rigorous support for the longstanding hypothesis that state of satiation modifies diel vertical migration patterns of deep-sea micronektonic crustaceans and fishes; and, 2) the first assessment of microplastic ingestion by deep-pelagic micronekton in the Gulf of Mexico and Straits of Florida. Deep-sea pelagic crustaceans and fishes significantly contribute to abundance and biomass of pelagic ecosystems, are frequently consumed by commercially valuable fishery species, and serve to transport both nutrients and pollutants between shallow and deep waters. The results presented herein will be valuable for assessing risk associated with potential biomagnification of plastic through consumption or indirect consumption of deep-sea biota. Moreover, these data demonstrate that the extent of feeding at depth by non-migratory taxa as well as non-migrating individuals of migratory taxa is substantial. Feeding at depth is usually excluded from biogeochemical models, and these data demonstrate that this is an important factor that must be included to obtain more precise estimates of active nutrient flux by micronekton. |
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