Carbon budget of a marine phytoplankton-herbivore system with carbon-14 as a tracer

Adult female and stage V Calanus pacificus were fed 14C-labeled phytoplankton in the laboratory in the form of monospecific cultures and natural populations. A carbon budget was constructed by following the 14C activity and the specific activity, over 48 h, in the phytoplankton, copepod, dissolved organic, dissolved inorganic, and fecal carbon compartments. The average incorporation of carbon into the copepod's body was 45% of the phytoplankton carbon available. Of the phytoplankton carbon, 27% appeared as dissolved organic carbon, 24% as dissolved inorganic carbon, and 3 to 4% in the form of fecal pellets. All of the tracer was recovered at the end of the experiments. The specific activity of the phytoplankton compartment was constant throughout each experiment. The other compartments had initial specific activities of zero, or close to zero, and increased throughout the experiment. In most experiments, the copepod specific activity equalled that of the phytoplankton at the end of 48 h, while the dissolved organic carbon, dissolved inorganic carbon, and fecal specific activities remained well below that of the phytoplankton