Grazing by herbivorous copepodsin the sea

Abstract

Grazing by herbivorous copepods has been expressed in terms of predation theory. The phrases volume swept clear or ml filtered are expressed as prey mortality. Theprey mortality decreases with prey density because the time spent capturing and eatingincreases. The mortality generated appears to vary with the weight of the predator becausethe animal is searching a volume. The theory could be used to estimate algal mortalityrates from estimated speeds and perceptive ranges of three species of Calanus. © 1968 Oxford University Press.