Abstract
Grazing experiments were conducted withCalanusspp. andBalanuscf.crenatusnauplii incubated with natural plankton from Disko Bay, West Greenland during the post-spring-bloom period. Both copepod and barnacle nauplii were feeding on different types of protists although at different rates.Calanusspp. nauplii preferred large ciliates and dinoflagellates whereas flagellates ~5 μm in diameter andMyrionecta rubrawere hardly ingested at all.B. cf.crenatusnauplii preferred diatoms and also consumed the small flagellates at relatively high rates. Compared toCalanusspp. nauplii,B. cf.crenatusnauplii ingested ciliates and dinoflagellates at low rates suggesting a more herbivorous feeding mode than the more predaceous copepod nauplii. The daily grazing impact of the nauplii community in Disko Bay was estimated using the weight-specific mean clearances from the grazing experiments and field biomass values of different categories of prey and nauplii. These calculations showed that the grazing impact by the nauplii community on all prey categories was generally modest (1.3 to 9.2%). However, the dominant part of the total food intake byCalanusspp. nauplii in the surface water was composed of ciliates and dinoflagellates, most of which were phagotrophic