In most marine ecosystems small planktonic crustaceans form the base of the food web linking primary producers with higher trophic levels including commercially important species such as lobsters and finfish and charismatic megafauna such as seabirds and whales. Climate change is warming the world’s oceans, reorganizing the biogeography of local species and the community structure ecosystems worldwide. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than other parts of the ocean causing keystone lipid rich copepod species such as Calanus finmarchicus appear to be moving northward to colder waters, while smaller, less fat copepods such as Centropages hamatus are becoming more abundant. This study investigated the energy budget of C. hamatus to increasing temperatures. Grazing and oxygen consumptions rates were measured at 8, 12, 16, and 21°C to determine how temperature affects the carbon accumulation rates. The data shows that as temperatures increase, both ingestion and respiration rates increased with an average Q10 of 2.39 and 1.52 respectively, suggesting an optimal temperature of ~16°C and with the sufficient scope of growth that extends up to 21°C+. These results suggest that as temperatures rise in the Gulf of Maine, C. hamatus will be able to survive the warmer water better than C. finmarchicus.

Primary Presenter: Brendan Kellogg, Southern Maine Community College (brenkellogg97@gmail.com)

Authors:

Brendan Kellogg, Southern Maine Community College  (brenkellogg97@gmail.com)

David Fields, Bigelow Laboratory  (dfields@bigelow.org)

Maura Niemisto, Bigelow Laboratory  (mniemisto@bigelow.org)