Food-Limited Growth of Marine Zooplankton

Abstract

1. The growth of marine, particle-feeding zooplankton is likely to be limited by the availability of food in open ocean environments, but not in coastal regions. 2. The maximum production ratio of zooplankton to phytoplankton is predicted to be greater at higher temperatures, ranging from 6.4% at 0⚬ C to 20.3% at 25⚬ C. 3. A method is described for using the modified von Bertalanffy growth equation, developed in this paper, to estimate the in situ production of zooplankton.