The influence of micro-zooplankton on marine productivity

Predatory microzooplankton are important components of planktonic food
webs as they provide a link for nutrients to pass up the food chain
through their ingestion of small phytoplankton and bacteria which are
unavailable to larger macro-zooplankton. They exhibit complex growth
dynamics including selective ingestion, high weight-specific metabolic
rates and variable rates of nutrient regeneration. However, at least
partly due to a lack of suitable data sets to provide parameter
values, the role of these species in planktonic ecosystem models has
not been well studied. We will investigate the inclusion of
micro-zooplankton grazers in an existing ecosystem model to assess
their influence on productivity and model dynamics and to study the
impotance of the level of sophstication used to model
micro-zooplantkon.