Elena Litchman; Mark D. Ohman; Thomas Kiorboe. Trait-based approaches to zooplankton communities. Journal of Plankton Research 2013; doi: 10.1093/plankt/fbt019
Zooplankton range in size from few micron sized flagellates to meter sized gelatinous forms, and they span a large range of groups and a significant taxonomic diversity. The paper describes how one may simplify this diversity by characterizing zooplankton by relatively few traits, such as size, motility, feeding behavior, without loss of significant functional information. Such a simplification is necessary for the development of models of marine ecosystems that can help predict effects of changing environmental conditions in the oceans.
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