Schulz, I.; et al. (2018): Remarkable structural resistance of a nanoflagellate-dominated plankton community to iron fertilization during the Southern Ocean experiment LOHAFEX
Schulz, I.; Montresor, M.; Klaas, C.; Assmy, P.; Wolzenburg, S.; Gauns, M. et al. (2018): Remarkable structural resistance of a nanoflagellate-dominated plankton community to iron fertilization during the Southern Ocean experiment LOHAFEX. In: Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 601, S. 77–95. DOI: 10.3354/meps12685.
„We attribute the unusually high biomass attained and maintained by ANF to the absence of their grazers, the salps, and to constraints on protozooplankton grazers by heavy predation exerted by the large copepod stock. The resistance to change of the ecosystem structure over 38 d after fertilization, indicated by homogeneity at regional and temporal scales, suggests that it was locked into a stable, mature state that had evolved in the course of the seasonal cycle. The LOHAFEX bloom provides a case study of a resistant/robust dynamic equilibrium between auto- and heterotrophic ecosystem components resulting in low vertical flux both inside and outside the patch despite high biomass levels.“