1985 Edwin W. Pauley Summer Program in Marine Biology

Nutrient and Energy Cycling Among Phytoplankton, Bacteria, and Zooplankton

May - August, 1985

During the summer of 1985 students and senior faculty who participated in the HIMB Summer Studies Program utilized a variety of experimental techniques to study nutrient and energy cycling among phytoplankton, bacteria, and zooplankton. Bacterial production rates were found to vary by more than an order of magnitude between different locations in the bay and HIMB lagoon, with most of the production being due to free-living (not-particle bound) bacteria. Use of metabolic inhibitors indicated that bacteria played an important role in both the uptake and regeneration of phosphate, and that phytoplankton were by no means the only important consumers of phosphate. Fifty percent or more of phytoplankton photosynthetic rates was due to picoplankton (0.2-2 microns). The productivity/biomass ratio for the phytoplankton community was consistent with recent studies which have indicated that the cells are growing rapidly with little reduction in growth rate due to nutrient limitation. A new technique for estimating zooplankton grazing rates using fluorescent microspheres yielded results in excellent agreement with known grazing rates measured in a continuous culture system. Use of bacteria uniformly labeled with carbon-14 was found to be a promising technique for estimating bacteriovore grazing rates and assimililation efficiencies. Studies of the benthic diatom Nitzschia graeffei indicated that 6-40% of the carbon assimilated by this organism was obtained via photoheterotrophy.

 

FACULTY

Dr. Farooq Azam, Institute of Marine Resources, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA
Dr. Paul Bienfang, Oceanic Institute, USA
Dr. Paul Falkowski, Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA
Dr. William Harrison, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada
Dr. David Karl, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA
Dr. Edward Laws, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA
Dr. Ian Morris, Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies, University of Maryland, USA
Dr. Michael Mullin, Institute of Marine Resources, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA
Dr. Michael Pace, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA
Dr. Satoru Taguchi, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA
note: lead faculty in bold

 

STUDENT PARTICIPANTS
Megan Bailiff, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA
Betsy Chronic, University of Alaska, USA
Darrell Fox, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA
Adrienne Gaedeke, University of Constance, Germany
Paul Haberstroh, University of Washington, USA
Margaret Murphy, Harvard University, USA
Michelle Nawrocki, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA
Cynthia Tynan, University of Rhode Island, USA
Paul Zimba, University of Maryland, USA

 

PROGRAM REPORT

Laws EA eds. (1985) Nutrient and energy cycling among phytoplankton, bacteria, and zooplankton. Kaneohe, Hawaii, 102 pp.

 

PHOTO GALLERY

Coming soon. Please send any scanned photos from the Pauley Summer Program to erik.franklin@hawaii.edu.

 

PUBLICATIONS

A list of publications that directly or indirectly resulted from scientific concepts, training, or research experiences during the Pauley Summer Program.

  1. Laws, E.A., D. Jones, and D.M. Karl. 1986. A method for assessing heterogeneity in specific growth rates within microbial communities. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 52: 866-874.
  2. Taguchi, S., and E.A. Laws. 1985.  Application of a single-cell isolation technique to studies of carbon assimilation by the subtropical silicoflagellate Dictyocha perlaevis. Marine Ecology Progress Series 23: 251-255.

 

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