Hydrobiologia 480: 41–54, 2002. 41 C.E. Lee, S. Strom & J. Yen (eds), Progress in Zooplankton Biology: Ecology, Systematics, and Behavior. © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Novel interactions between phytoplankton and microzooplankton: their influence on the coupling between growth and grazing rates in the sea Suzanne Strom Shannon Point Marine Center, Western Washington University, 1900 Shannon Point Rd., Anacortes, WA 98221, U.S.A. Tel: 360-293-2188. E-mail:
[email protected] Key words: phytoplankton, microzooplankton, grazing, stability, behavior, evolution Abstract Understanding the processes that regulate phytoplankton biomass and growth rate remains one of the central issues for biological oceanography. While the role of resources in phytoplankton regulation (‘bottom up’ control) has been explored extensively, the role of grazing (‘top down’ control) is less well understood. This paper seeks to apply the approach pioneered by Frost and others, i.e. exploring consequences of individual grazer behavior for whole ecosystems, to questions about microzooplankton–phytoplankton interactions. Given the diversity and paucity of phytoplankton prey in much of the sea, there should be strong pressure for microzooplankton, the primary grazers of most phytoplankton, to evolve strategies that maximize prey encounter and utilization while allowing for survival in times of scarcity. These strategies include higher grazing rates on faster-growing phytoplankton cells, the direct use of light for enhancement of protist digestion rates, nutritional plasticity, rapid population growth combined with formation of resting stages, and defenses against predatory zooplankton. Most of these phenomena should increase community-level coupling (i.e. the degree of instantaneous and time-dependent similarity) between rates of phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton grazing, tending to stabilize planktonic ecosystems.