Abstract
The contribution of fecal pellets to the benthos of the southeastern shelf of the USA is investigated through an analytic model which considers pellet production by different stage groups of the genus Paracalanus. Model results indicate that the concentration and vertical flux of pellets is a function of producer size and consumer size and abundance. Nauplii and adults, respectively, produce daily on the average 50 and 13% of total pellet mass, yet contribute 4 and 63%, respectively, to the daily pellet flux. Most of the pellets produced are consumed or degraded in the water column, with only 0.2% of the average daily primary production reaching the seafloor (35 m) as fecal pellets. This contributes to an impoverished benthos, such as that found on the southeastern continental shelf.
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Communicated by J. M. Lawrence, Tampa
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Hofmann, E.E., Klinck, J.M. & Paffenhöfer, G.A. Concentrations and vertical fluxes of zooplankton fecal pellets on a continental shelf. Mar. Biol. 61, 327–335 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401572
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401572