Abstract
As part of the Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array (SPIROPA) Project, twelve grazing experiments were conducted during each of three research cruises (April of 2018, and May and July of 2019) in the Middle Atlantic Bight to estimate community zooplankton grazing and net phytoplankton growth rates. Stations where the experiments were conducted were strategically located in one of three key cross-shelf water mass regimes: (1) at the shelfbreak front, (2) inshore of the front in continental shelf water and (3) offshore of the front in slope water. Grazing incubations were performed on water sampled from the chlorophyll maximum, when present. The experiments included two "treatments": 1. whole water incubations and incubations on the <200 µm fraction of the plankton commuinity. All experiments were run in triplicate for 24 hours in flow-thru deck incubators and consisted of a dark treatment incubation and a light treatment incubation at a simulated 30% E0.