Contribution of nanoprotists to metazooplankton diet in a mesocosm experiment in the coastal northern Baltic

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Abstract
Grazing by a metazooplankton community on nanoprotists 3H-labelled nanoplankton as tracer food . Grazing by mesozooplankton (Meso) and metazaan microplankton (Micro), screened through 140 and 100 μm mesh, was studied. Owing to enrichment effects and weak predation control by fish, the biomass of Meso and Micro increased during the study perid Meso biomass consisted mostly of the copepod Eurytemora affinis and the cladoceran Bosmina longispims maritima, and Micro biomass of copepod nauplii NIII–NVI. The community clearance rate of Meso usually exceeded that of Micro when feeding on nanoprotists The opposite was found for the biomass-smc clearance rate, revealing nanoprotists to be a more important f d source for Micro than for Meso. Metazmplankton were not able to control nanoprotists, because Meso and Micro were estimated to remove on average 4 and 2% of nanoprotowan biomass daily. When integrated through the study period, grazing on nanoprotists could meet 5 and 17% of the carbon need for Meso and Micro, 3 and 12% of their production being estimated to consist of bacterial carbon transferred by nanoprotists Micro were estimated to be more closely Linked to the microbial food web than Meso, suggesting that the trophic pusition of copepods changes slightly during their maturation from nauphi to larger copepodites.

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