Diel vertical migration (DVM)

Diel vertical migration of
Zooplankton
Done by : Sumaiah Alghamdi
Submitted to :
Dr. Proomi

Content
• Introduction
• Definition
• Importance
• Vertical migration stimuli.
• Reasons for vertical migration.
• Types of vertical migration
• References

Introduction
• Animal migration is the relatively long-distance
movement of individuals, usually on a seasonal basis.
• Found in all major animal groups for different
triggers such as local climate, local availability of
food, the season of the year or for mating reasons.
• In terms of biomass, the greatest migration in the
world is the migration of Zooplankton .
• Zooplankton migration is different because it moves
up and down through the ocean's depths rather than
traversing a landscape.
• Known as Diel vertical migration (DVM), also
known as diurnal vertical migration.

Definition
• Diel vertical migration (DVM) is a pattern of
movement used by Zooplankton .
• The word Diel comes from the Latin dies day,
and means a 24-hour period.
• Every day, as the sun sets, hundreds and
thousands of individual zooplankton begin to
swim up from deep waters to the surface and
swim back to depth around dawn .

Definition..cont
• The migration occurs when organisms move up
to the epipelagic ( photic zone) at night and
return to the mesopelagic ( aphotic zone) of the
oceans during the day.

Importance
• The vertical migration plays a large role in the active
transport of dissolved organic matter to depth.
Because a large majority of the deep sea, especially
marine microbes, depends on nutrients falling down
• Important for the biological pump
The biological pump is the conversion of CO2 and
inorganic nutrients by plant photosynthesis into
particulate organic matter in the euphotic zone and
transference to the deeper ocean. This is a major
process in the ocean and without vertical migration it
wouldn’t be nearly as efficient.

Vertical migration stimuli.
• There are two different factors that are known to
play a role in vertical migration,
1- Endogenous.
factors originate from the organism itself; sex, age,
biological rhythms, etc.
2- Exogenous
factors are environmental factors acting on the
organism such as light, gravity, oxygen,
temperature, predator-prey interactions, etc.

Vertical migration stimuli..cont
Endogenous factors :
1) Biological clocks
Many evidence shows that circadian rhythms controlling
DVM and metabolism
2) gene expression
The expression of genes varies temporally with the
expression significantly increasing following dawn and
dusk at times of greatest vertical migration seen in some
species. These finding may indicate they work as a
molecular stimulus for vertical migration
3) Body size
The relative body size of an organism has been found to
affect DVM.

Exogenous factors:
1) Light is the most common and critical cue for vertical
migration. Organisms want to find an optimum light
intensity Whether it is no light or a large amount of light,
an organism will travel to where it is most comfortable.
2) Temperature ,Organisms will migrate to a water depth
with suitable temperatures that best suit the organisms
needs
3) Salinity , Changes in salinity may promote organism to
seek out more suitable waters if they happen to be
unequipped to handle regulating their osmotic pressure.

4) Pressure
Pressure changes have been found to produce differential
responses that result in vertical migration. , when there is
a decrease in pressure, the zoo plankton respond by active
downward swimming to descend in the water column
5) Tidal Patterns
Some organisms have been found to move with the tidal
cycle. It is possible that varying factors with the tides may
be the true trigger for the migration rather than the
movement of the water itself, like the salinity or minute
pressure changes

Reasons for vertical migration
A. Predator avoidance zooplankton migrate to deep waters
during the day to avoid predation and come up to the
surface at night to feed. They can also indicate their
predators by cyclomorphosis.
• Cyclomorphosis occurs when predators release chemicals in
the water that signal zooplankton.
B. Metabolic advantages By feeding in the warm surface
waters at night and residing in the cooler deep waters during
the day they can conserve energy.
C. Dispersal and transport Organisms can use deep and
shallow currents to find food patches or to maintain a
geographical location.
D. Avoid UV damage The sunlight can penetrate into the
water column. If an organism, is too close to the surface the
UV can damage them. So they would want to avoid getting
too close to the surface, especially during daylight.

Types of vertical migration
Diel
Nocturnal
vertical
migration
Twilight diel
vertical
migration
Reverse
migration
Seasonal
Ontogenetic

Types of vertical migration
A. Seasonal
Organisms are found at different depths depending
on what season it is .Seasonal changes to the
environment may influence changes to
migration patterns.
B. Ontogenetic
Organisms spend different stages of their life cycle
at different depths

Types of vertical migration…cont
C. Diel
the most common form of vertical migration.
there are three recognized types of diel vertical
migration
1. Reverse migration
Rise during day and descent at night
2. Twilight diel vertical migration
Two separate migrations in a single 24-hour period
3. Nocturnal vertical migration

2. Twilight diel vertical migration
Two separate migrations in a single 24-hour period
a. Midnight sink (ascent at dusk followed by a
descent at midnight)
b. ascent to the surface and descent to the depths
occurs at sunrise.

3. Nocturnal vertical migration
Single daily ascent near sunset . the organisms ascend
to the surface around dusk, remaining at the surface
for the night, then migrating to depth again around
dawn.

Unusual events
• Due to the particular types of stimuli used to initiate
vertical migration, anomalies can change the pattern of
migration
• For example , the occurrence of midnight sun in the
Arctic induces changes to planktonic life that would
normally perform DVM with a 24-hour night and day
cycle.
• In the summers long days of the Earth's north pole the
day light continuous for more than 24-hours. Some
species of foraminifera found in the ocean stop their
DVM pattern, and rather remain at the surface in favor of
feeding on the phytoplankton.

Unusual events
• There is also evidence of changes to vertical migration
patterns during solar eclipse events.
• In the moments that the sun is blocked during normal
day light hours, there is a sudden dramatic decrease in
light intensity. That replicates the typical lighting
experienced at night time that stimulate the planktonic
organisms to migrate.
• During an eclipse, some copepod species distribution is
concentrated near the surface

References
• R. Rosa, B.A. Seibel (July–August 2010). "Metabolic physiology of the Humboldt squid,
Dosidicus gigas: Implications for vertical migration in a pronounced oxygen minimum
zone". Progress in Oceanography. 86: 72–80. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2010.04.004.
• L.F.G. Gutowsky, P.M. Harrison, E.G. Martins, A. Leake, D.A. Patterson, M. Power, S.J. Cooke
(August 2013). "Diel vertical migration hypotheses explain size-dependent behaviour in
freshwater piscivore". Animal Behaviour. 86: 365–
373. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.05.027.
• B. Cisewski, V.H. Strass, M. Rhein, S. Kragefsky (January 2010). "Seasonal variation of diel
vertical migration of zooplankton from ADCP backscatter time series data in the Lazarev
Sea, Antarctica". Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 57: 78–
94. doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2009.10.005.
• N.S. Hafker, B. Meyer, K.S. Last, D.W. Pond, L. Huppe, M. Taschke (July 2017). "Circadian
clock involvement in zooplankton diel vertical migration" (PDF). Current Biology. 27: 2194–
2201. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.025.
• C. Manno, A.K. Pavlov (January 2014). "Living planktonic foraminifera in the Fram Strait
(Arctic): absence of diel vertical migration during the midnight sun". Hydrobiologia. 721:
285–295. doi:10.1007/s10750-013-1669-4.
• K. Sherman, K.A. Honey (May 1970). "Vertical movements of zooplankton during a solar
eclipse" (PDF). Nature. 227: 1156–1158. doi:10.1038/2271156a0.

References
• von Elert, Eric; Georg Pohnert (2000). "Diel Predator specificity of kairomones in diel
vertical migration of Daphnia: a chemical approach". OIKOS. 88 (1): 119–
128. doi:10.1034/j.1600-0706.2000.880114.x. ISSN 0030-1299.[permanent dead link]
• Kerfoot, WC (1985). "Adaptive value of vertical migration: Comments on the predation
hypothesis and some alternatives". Contributions in Marine Science. 27: 91–
113.[permanent dead link]
• Dawidowicz, Piotr; Prędki, Piotr; Pietrzak, Barbara (2012-11-23). "Depth-selection
behavior and longevity in Daphnia: an evolutionary test for the predation-avoidance
hypothesis". Hydrobiologia. 715 (1): 87–91. doi:10.1007/s10750-012-1393-
5. ISSN 0018-8158.
• Web of Science [v.5.20] - Web of Science Core Collection Full
Record". apps.webofknowledge.com. Retrieved 2015-11-14.
• Tiberti, Rocco; Iacobuzio, Rocco (2012-12-09). "Does the fish presence influence the
diurnal vertical distribution of zooplankton in high transparency
lakes?". Hydrobiologia. 709 (1): 27–39. doi:10.1007/s10750-012-1405-5. ISSN 0018-
8158.
•

Diel vertical migration (DVM)

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