Testing zooplankton secondary production models against Daphnia magna growth

8 pages, 3 figures, 5 tablesModelling secondary production rates in the zooplankton is essential for population ecology studies, but assessing these rates is difficult and rarely done. Here, five secondary production models are tested by measuring Daphnia magna growth. To provide a range of growth rates, Daphnia were cultured under three different nutrition regimes (yeast, cornflour, and phytoplankton). Length and biomass were monitored daily in three simple time-course experiments to provide the growth rates, which ranged from 0.11 to 0.30 d -1 with secondary production rates of 350-643 μg dry mass d -1. Secondary production was predicted best by the freshwater crustacean-based model of Stockwell and Johannsson (1997). Marine copepod-based marine models were totally unsuitable. © 2012 International Council for the Exploration of the SeaThe work was supported by Project 18/95 of the Canary Autonomous Goverment and project EXZOME (CTM2008-01616/MAR) granted to MG. I. Martínez and I. Mayo were supported by a grant from Fundación Universitaria de Las Palmas, and TTP by contract EXMAR SE-539 10/17 (Proyecto Estructurante en Ciencias Marinas)Peer Reviewe