Zooplankton Productivity

Zooplankton is a term used to describe the heterotrophic plankton, including both metazoans (multicellular animals) and single-celled protozoa such as ciliates and flagellates. Zooplankton encompass a great diversity of phyla, with an array of life history and ecological traits. Their body size spans over more than 15 orders of magnitude, and include species with a life cycle of less than a day to many years. This chapter describes the productivity of zooplankton. It first discusses the importance of determining life history and vital rates of zooplankton. It then examines the major ways in which growth and secondary production rates are determined. Finally, it explores mechanistic and empirical frameworks to predict what controls these rates and why.