Microzooplankton : Cryptophyte, Ciliate, and Heterotrophic Nanoflagellate Abundances

Abstract:

In conjunction with the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, lakes were monitored for microzooplankton by a team based out of the University of Nottingham (led by Johanna Laybourn-Parry). This dataset shows the abundance of heterotrophic nanoflagellates, cryptophytes, and ciliates found at various depths in Lake Fryxell and Lake Hoare.

LTER Core Areas:

population dynamics

Dataset ID:

Associated Personnel:

615

Short name:

abundnce

Data sources:

abundnce

Methods:

The water column was sampled at the deepest point in each lake with a 2.21 Niskin bottle, through a hole drilled in thick ice cover (approximately 4m thick). Duplicate 60ml samples from each depth were fixed in buffered glutaraldehyde to a final concentration of 2% and stored in the dark at 4 degrees C prior to being analyzed. For HNAN and cryptophyte counts, 30-50ml of the sample was stained with DAPI, filtered onto a 2.0 m polycarbonate membrane filter and viewed under epifluorescence. Twenty Whipple grids were counted on each filter to determine mean abundance. For ciliates, duplicate 500 ml water samples were fixed in Lugol's iodine and concentrated by settling, prior to counting in a Sedgewick-Rafter counting chamber under phase microscopy at x160.

Maintenance:

The metadata was updated in 2016, some of the locations of the provenance files described below are no longer relevant.

Data for this file was submitted by Johanna Laybourn-Parry to the data manager at INSTAAR on October 21, 1998. Files were sent via e-mail as well as a hard copy. The original version of the file is stored on the Unix system in

"/data1/data/lakes/plankton/laybourn-parry/emily.xls" and

"/data1/data/lakes/plankton/laybourn-parry/ciliate.xls".

Upon arrival at INSTAAR, the data manager reformatted the file to present it in a relational mode. This was done using Microsoft Access. It was then exported in comma delimited ascii and MS-DOS text format to present on the web. Links to these files are provided above.