{"id":582,"date":"2016-05-24T15:34:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T22:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/?p=582"},"modified":"2016-05-26T18:06:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T01:06:46","slug":"acartia-tonsa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/acartia-tonsa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Acartia tonsa"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Author – Chelsea Rabourn<\/h3>\n

Common name: copepod<\/p>\n

Acartia tonsa<\/em> is a crustaceous copepod species of zooplankton that thrives in many of the world\u2019s estuaries, where concentrations of its prey (phytoplankton) are high. Acartia tonsa\u2019s <\/em>success and abundance may also be attributed to its tolerance of a wide range of ocean temperatures (-1 to 32\u00baC) and salinities (1 ppt to 38 ppt), helping it compete in a variety of estuarine microclimates. Due to this adaptability, Acartia tonsa<\/em> can become invasive in some regions. <\/p>\n

\"copepod1chels\" A. tonsa<\/em> has a translucent body that ranges from\u00a00.5 mm to 1.5 mm in length. It possesses two long antennae that often appear to be filled with a deep red filament. These long antennae are used to distinguish this species from other copepods, as the antennae of A. tonsa<\/em> extend at least half the length of its full body. This species also has a secondary set of antennae, and a distinguishing joint between their fifth and sixth body segments that other species do not have. Like most copepods, A. tonsa<\/em> also possesses a single eye that rests in the middle of its translucent head, which in this species appears red in coloration- matching its antennae. <\/p>\n

A. tonsa <\/em>has an excellent efficiency rate of transforming its food into biological energy, and \u201cseems to be very efficient in transforming ingested material into eggs.\u201d This could be another factor contributing to A. tonsa\u2019s<\/em> abundance in world oceans. (Ki\u00f8rboe et al., 1985)<\/p>\n

As both a predator and prey species, A. tonsa<\/em> plays an integral role in estuarine ecosystems. This copepod controls phytoplankton populations, regulates nitrogen in a system, and provides necessary food to zooplankton consumers. In light of this dynamic role, A. tonsa<\/em> is considered a keystone species \u2013 meaning that ecosystems can begin to break down when this organism\u2019s abundance is severely reduced. A study of possible effects of global climate change on A. tonsa<\/em> revealed unpredicted increasing vulnerability of this species to one of its Ctenophore predators. When large seasonal variations in water temperature brought about spikes in Ctenophore populations, A. tonsa\u2019s<\/em> ability to avoid predation was severely impacted.\u00a0 \u201cThis study demonstrates the complexity of predicting individual species responses to climatic warming, even for species with well-known patterns of seasonal and geographic distribution.\u201d (Sullivan et al., 2007)<\/p>\n

\"chelsea_acartia_tonsa_comic_whiter2\"<\/p>\n

Literature Cited<\/h3>\n

Ki\u00f8rboe, Thomas, Flemming M\u00f8hlenberg, and Kirsten Hamburger. (1985) “Bioenergetics of the planktonic copepod Acartia tonsa<\/em>: relation between feeding, egg production and respiration, and composition of specific dynamic action.”\u00a0Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser<\/em>\u00a026.1-2: 85-97.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, Barbara K., John H. Costello, and D. Van Keuren. (2007) “Seasonality of the copepods Acartia hudsonica<\/em> and Acartia tonsa<\/em> in Narragansett Bay, RI, USA during a period of climate change.”\u00a0Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science<\/em>\u00a073.1: 259-267.<\/p>\n

“Acartia tonsa<\/em>.” Animal Diversity Web<\/em>. Web. 22 May 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3345,"featured_media":578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms-spring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}