Show Abstract
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.