NOAA Funded Research Published in
SCIENCE (entered 07/22/03)
NOAA's Undersea Research Program (NURP), along with
NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration (OE), NOAA's Marine and Aviation
Operations (NMAO) and the NOAA Fisheries, co-funded research on
krill mortality, which was recently published in the July 18, 2003
issue of Science.
The article entitled "Mass Mortality of Krill Caused
by Parasitoid Ciliates" by J. Gomez-Guitierrez, William T.
Peterson, Alex D. Robertis, and Richard D. Brodeur was published
as a Brevia (800 words or less). This short article describes the
ecology of euphausiids or krill, a pelagic crustacean found throughout
the world's oceans. Although krill are an important link in the
pelagic food chain, little is known about their mortality. This
study identifies a parasitic ciliate that resulted in significant
infection rates in krill that led to a large-scale mortality event.
Since this paper was restricted in length, the authors
emailed an extended acknowlegement section which included support
by NURP, OE and NMAO. The ROPOS, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV),
operations were successfully conducted from the NOAA ship R/V Ron
Brown in Astoria canyon off Oregon on the seafloor (220 to 550 m
depth).
For more information, see the Science
Magazine website.
Contact information
Name: Kimberly Puglise
kimberly.puglise@noaa.gov
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