Hi there, I m wandering if anyone has some detail of measuring the digest time for zooplankton species (e.g. Cladoceran or copepods)
All I know in literature is the time for food pass though the digest system is about 20-30 minutes for Cladoceran , 10-20 minutes for copepods. However, those studies didn't mention if those zooplankton has previously suffer starvation before the measuring, and not mention the period of starvation neither.
As studies has showed after 12-14h starvation, the feeding speed of zooplankton could reach 4-7 time high than normal feeding speed. I suppose the time for food pass through the digest system should decrease.
Anyone could help me with that please
Hi Fan Qin,
good question. A colleague of mine (Kai Wirtz at the Institute of Coastal Research Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht) has worked out a scaling approach for food passage and ingestion. You might find helpful information in his study from 2013:
https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbs075
Best wishes, Markus
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