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Nonselective, nonsaturated feeding by three calanid copepod species in the Labrador Sea 1
Author(s) -
Huntley Mark
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1981.26.5.0831
Subject(s) - copepod , calanus finmarchicus , calanus , phytoplankton , ingestion , clearance rate , chlorophyll a , biology , grazing , bay , zoology , crustacean , oceanography , ecology , botany , nutrient , biochemistry , geology , endocrinology
Copepod grazing experiments were conducted in suspensions of natural particulate matter during the spring bloom in the Labrador Sea to examine the phenomena of saturated ingestion rates and particle selection. There was no critical concentration of available food at which ingestion rates were saturated. Calanus finmarchicus, Calanus glacialis, and Calanus hyperboreus removed all phytoplankton in direct proportion to their abundance at chlorophyll a concentrations ranging from 0.53 to 12.1 µ g·liter −1 . For phytoplankton >20 µ m in diameter there appeared to be no selective ingestion according to the size, shape, or species of cell. The filtration rate for a given copepod species did not change over time or space. Weight‐specific ingestion rate increased as copepod body weight increased.