Seasonal study of grazing by metazoan zooplankton in the mesohaline Chesapeake Bay

Abstract

Zooplankton grazing was dominated by Acartia species copepods in March and August, polychaete larvae in May, and the cyclopoid copepod Oithona colcarva in June 1987 and October 1988. Copepod nauplii were nearly always important grazers because of their relatively high biomass and weight-specific ingestion rates. Amount of daily phytoplankton production removed by zooplankton in 1988 varied between 12-103% with March > August > October > May. (See also 93L/09443). -from Authors