Length of Salpa thompsoni collected with a 2-m, 700-um net towed from surface to 120 m, collected aboard Palmer LTER annual cruises off the coast of the Western Antarctic Peninsula, 2009 - 2024.

Salps (Salpa thompsoni) are conspicuous gelatinous zooplankton capable of rapid population increases, enabling them to respond quickly to unpredictable phytoplankton blooms common in the Antarctic. Body length was measured on salps collected from LTER zooplankton tows along the western Antarctic Peninsula. Annual cruises take place between late December to early February, except for the NBP21-13 cruise, which was November and December. Salps have amongst the highest filtration rates of all zooplankton, and package their waste into large, fast sinking fecal pellets. These pellets provide a mechanism to export carbon fixed in the surface waters into the deep ocean. Since filtration rates and pellet size are positively related to the size of a salp, population estimates of grazing and exported carbon can be determined through length data.