Abstract
During a cruise on the continental shelf off the southeastern U.S., determinations were made of the specific types of food ingested by adult females of ten copepod species, and adult males, females, and copepodites of an eleventh species. This was done by scanning electron microscope examination of fecal pellets, the contents of which reflected natural diets prior to capture. Fecal pellet contents were compared with assemblages of phytoplankton species in surface waters from which copepods were captured. In most cases, feeding habits of several copepod taxa of different sizes were examined at each of 16 stations where phytoplankton assemblages varied considerably in terms of abundance and composition. Copepods generally fed nonselectively, in that food items were ingested in approximate proportion to their availability. Contents of fecal pellets were usually similar to the composition of surface phytoplankton assemblages, and the most abundant phytoplankters in fecal pellets were usually the most abundant in the water. These patterns held regardless of the sizes of both the copepods and the phytoplankters.