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TOM
FENCHEL (1986)
Dr.
Tom Fenchel, the ninth recipient of the A.G. Huntsman Award, is recognized
for his fundamental studies of microfauna in marine benthic and pelagic
communities. His pioneering work during the late 1960s, when he
investigated the microbenthic flora and fauna of coastal sediments in
Denmark, marked the initiation of new ecological work on an undescribed
and little known group of marine organisms. During the course of his
studies, he developed new techniques to quantify biomass, and identified a
new species of micro-organisms that live within the interstitial space of
all sediments. These findings led to the first descriptions of the highly
specialized foodwebs that occur within these environments. The methods
that he developed to measure feeding rates of ciliates preying on bacteria
were first applied to the microbenthic environment, and have since been
extended to more recent studies of pelagic communities. There his work
emphasized the importance of microplankton and micrograzer food webs in
the pelagic environment. His findings and conclusions have significantly
increased our understanding of the structure and function of marine
microbial communities in marine sediments and the water column.
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