METERING FILTRATION EFFICIENCY OF FRESH-WATER ZOOPLANKTON HAULS - REMINDERS FROM THE PAST

While the importance of determining the filtration efficiency of plankton nets has been recognized for decades, a survey of recent literature indicates that freshwater zooplankton ecologists rarely mount flow meters in their plankton nets. As a reminder of the hazards of this omission, we document larger inter- and intra-annual variability in plankton net filtration efficiency in a 10 year data set from an oligotrophic Canadian Shield lake. We also experimentally demonstrate the influence of net design (i.e. open area ratio), haul speed, stall speed and zooplankton community structure on net filtration efficiency.