Estimation of zooplankton mortality caused by an Arctic glacier outflow

Estimation of zooplankton mortality caused by an Arctic glacier outflow

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The outflow of freshwater from underwater channels in the Kongsbreen tidal glacier in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, 79oN, was measured as 138.8 m3 s-1 at the peak of the melting season.Experiments on local marine plankton mortality show that rowenta dr8270 when exposed to salinities below 9 PSU, all copepods die within 15 minutes.

We estimate that during 100 days of the melting season, as many as 85 tonnes wet weight (WW) of plankton is removed from the water column due to osmotic shock, which makes up 15% of the standing zooplankton biomass of the fjord.The dead fr9577 zooplankton sinks after exposure to low salinities and is probably an important food source for scavenging benthic fauna in the fjord.This mechanism could be responsible for the high numbers of Onisimus caricus near the glacier front.