Grazing during early spring in the Gulf of Aqaba and the northern Red Sea

Zooplankton grazing on bacterio- and phytoplankton was studied in the Gulf of Aqaba and the Northern Red Sea during Meteor Cruise Me 44-2 in February-March 1999. Protozoan grazing on bacterioplankton and autotrophic ultraplankton was studied by the Landry dilution method. Microzooplankton grazing on phytoplankton >6 μm was studied by incubation experiments in the presence and absence of microzooplankton. Mesozooplankton grazing was studied by measuring per capita clearance rates of individual zooplankton with radioactively labelled food organisms and estimatingin siturates from abundance values. Protozoan grazing rates on heterotrophic bacteria and on algae