Sommer, Frank and Sommer, Ulrich (2004) δ¹⁵N signatures of marine zooplankton and seston size fractions in Kiel Fjord, Baltic Sea. Journal of Plankton Research, 26 . pp. 495-500. DOI 10.1093/plankt/fbh048.

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Abstract

The δ15N of marine mesozooplankton species was measured on four occasions. Significant differences were found between copepods and meroplanktonic larvae, yet not between holoplanktonic species. On average, mesozooplankton was enriched by 3.4 ± 0.9‰ relative to selected seston size fractions. Despite suggesting small differences (∼0.5 to 1‰) in the δ15N of different phytoplankton taxa on one occasion, the size fractionation procedure generally proved inadequate in separating major taxonomic groups composing seston. This circumstance, and phase-shifts in the transmission of rapid changes (>2‰) in seston δ15N to mesozooplankton complicate the calculation of mesozooplankton trophic levels.

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