Fecal Pellet production by copepods during UPSB

To quantify grazing impact of copepod to UPSB in the wouthwester Baffin Bay, we conducted fecal pellet production experiments. Experimental specimens (i.e. copepods) were collected at 1 x 1 m hole on the first-year landfast ice once for each 2-7 days between 24 May to 7 July 2016 as a part of the Green Edge 2016 field campaign. A 200 micrometer mesh, 0.785 m2 mouth aperture conical net equipped with a rigid live-capture cod-end was hauled vertically from 100 m (from 24 May to 21 June) or 30 m (from 25 June to 10 July) to the surface at towing speed of 0.3 m s-1. To remove the effects of variation in the volume filtered due to the difference of net towing depth (30 m or 100 m), fecal pellets production rate was standardized for those data as towing distance of 100 m (i.e., the production rate per square meter = Raw data x100 / towing depth). Collected specimens were incubated in filtered sea water to collect fecal pellets. Those produced fecal pellets were counted and meausred width, length and shape under a stereo-microscope in a laboratory.