OBJECTIVES

• Main Author: John L. Fuller
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fuller; Calanus finmarchicus; Copepods
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.560.5171; http://www.biolbull.org/content/72/2/233.full.pdf

The amount of food available to a plankton-feeding animal is deter mined by the concentration of suitable food material in the water, and by the rate of the animal's feeding activity. The calanoid copepods, like many other zooplanktonts, are generally considered to feed by filtering out particles from a current of water generated by the animals (Cannon, 1928). By determining the number of food organisms re moved by an animal from a suspension of known concentration, the volume of water which has been filtered clear of the organisms can be calculated and, if the chemical composition of the organisms be known, the amount of nutriment made available to the animal may be esti mated. Preliminary measurements of the filtering rate of Calanus finmarchicus have been reported by Fuller and Clarke (1936). Further investigation of changes in the feeding rate induced by varying environ mental factors of ecological importance was expected to yield informa tion useful in the quantitative study of aquatic food cycles. Diatom