Zooplankton: Specific distribution and food abundance1

Abstract

Does competition for food produce the distribution patterns we see for large versus small bodied zooplankton species in the absence of predation? Measurements of abundance of zooplankton food suggest that the disjunct distribution found between lakes is not due to competition for food. As much or more zooplankton food (bacteria <1 µ and nannoplankton 1–20.8 µ) occurred in ponds with large species as in nearby ponds with small species. This suggests that large zooplankton species do not out‐compete small species, with food density as the limiting resource.