Straining for a net profit

Abstract

Pelagic tunicates (salps, appendicularians, pyrosomas and doliolids) are gelatinous marine zooplankton that are common in most of the oceans of the world. These animals are extremely successful, having colonized the nutritionally poor oceanic ‘blue water’ areas and abyssal depths, and are capable of producing dense populations that mediate massive fluxes of fecal material from the surface to the deep sea. This transformation of planktonic carbon into ‘marine snow’ is an important part of the role of oceans as an atmospheric carbon sink. However, in spite of their ecological importance, relatively little is known about these animals. Perhaps most intriguing are their relatively large, transparent gelatinous bodies. In a new paper, José Luis Acuña 1 Acuña J.L. Pelagic tunicates: why gelatinous?. Am. Nat. 2001; 158: 100-107 Crossref PubMed Scopus (50) Google Scholar has shown that the strange, gelatinous bodies of these pelagic tunicates are essential to their ability to thrive in nutritionally poor habitats.