©2020 Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office.Oceanic ctenophores are widespread predators on pelagic zooplankton. This data describes the digestion rates of a widespread oceanic ctenophore, Ocyropsis spp. as a component for evaluating trophic impact of this and other oceanic ctenophores in planktonic communities. Collection and in situ imaging of Ocyropsis spp. were made during 2021 via blue-water (daytime) and black-water (nighttime) SCUBA diving from a small boat along the western edge of the Gulf Stream, 5 to 8 km off the coast of West ...
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Ctenophores were offered a mixed assemblage of copepods from the genera Acartia, Oncaea, and Microsetella. Digestion time observations were made using a Motic SMZ-171 stereo microscope and began immediately following the first observation of prey ingestion. The number of prey simultaneously digested varied from 3-9 prey. Ctenophore lobe length as well as digestive tract length were recorded. Observations continued every two minutes until digestion was complete. High resolution image series of digestion were also made for several individual ctenophores using a Nikon 750 DLSR camera coupled to the stereo microscope. Complete digestion was defined as the time at which the only visible remains of the copepod prey were chitinous structures.
Costello, J. H., Colin, S., Gemmell, B. J., Sutherland, K. R. (2024) Observed digestion times of Ocyropsis spp. collected from the Gulf Stream during June 2021 (Ocean Ctenos project). Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). (Version 1) Version Date 2024-01-26 [if applicable, indicate subset used]. doi:10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.918678.1 [access date]
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