The Impact of Protozoan Zooplankton on the Structure,       Composition and Fate of the North Atlantic Spring Bloom
{'Code': '06040301', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'GEO', 'LongName': 'Directorate For Geosciences'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'OCE', 'LongName': 'Division Of Ocean Sciences'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Phillip R. Taylor'}
Recent field studies strongly implicate nano- and picoplankton                  as the dominant primary producers in the open ocean.  Their                     rapid response times to changes in food supply are thought to                   maintain substantial coupling between production and                            consumption in the euphotic zone.  Yet sediment trap                            collections indicate that significant episodes of vertical                      particle flux from the upper mixed layer to the seafloor are                    associated with phytoplankton blooms.  The blooms themselves                    are offered as evidence of decoupling, presumably between                       macrozooplankton and larger size classes of phytoplankton.                      These conflicting hypotheses underscore the fact that the                       relative importance of small and large phytoplankton in the                     open sea, the role of protozoan and metazoan grazers in                         regulating their dynamics, the temporal and spatial                             heterogeneity of these processes, and their relationship to                     particle export out of the mixed layer are not well known.                                                                                                      These ideas have coalesced into an international study (JGOFS)                  of the origin and fate of the spring bloom in the Northeast                     Atlantic Ocean.  This portion of the study will quantify the                    abundance, biomass, taxonomic, and trophic composition of                       autotrophic picoplankton, autotrophic and heterotrophic                         nanoplankton, and phagotrophic protozoans, and measure the                      grazing impact and growth rates of protozooplankton.  These                     studies will be conducted using sophisticated technology,                       including automated color image analysis, epifluorescence and                   electron microscopy, and HPLC.  The results will be used to                     analyze the role of protozoan zooplankton in preserving                         coupling between the production, consumption, and export of                     particulate organic matter in the upper ocean.
[{'FirstName': 'Diane', 'LastName': 'Stoecker', 'EmailAddress': 'stoecker@hpl.umces.edu', 'StartDate': '03/01/1989', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Co-Principal Investigator'}, {'FirstName': 'Peter', 'LastName': 'Verity', 'EmailAddress': 'peter.verity@skio.usg.edu', 'StartDate': '03/01/1989', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}]
{'Name': 'Skidaway Institute of Oceanography', 'CityName': 'Savannah', 'ZipCode': '314111011', 'PhoneNumber': '9125982400', 'StreetAddress': '10 Ocean Science Circle', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Georgia', 'StateCode': 'GA'}
[{'Code': '1650', 'Text': 'BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY'}, {'Code': '1670', 'Text': 'Chemical Oceanography'}]
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8817399.xml'}