Zooplankton feeding on seston in the Rhone River plume area (NW Mediterranean Sea) in May 1988

In the Rhone delta area the seston concentration was maximum in the plume waters where small-sized particles dominated, while marine waters were characterized by large particles. The food conditions were optimal for grazers in the interface layer, where the high chlorophyll concentration contrasted with the low values found under the plume.The mesozooplankton specific composition did not show marked difference in and outside the plume. No special pattern for particle size selection by grazers appeared in the plume, contrary to marine waters, where largest particles were the most intensively grazed. The calculations of specific ingestion and filtration rates show that the plume waters (particularly at the salinity interface) were more favourable to zooplankton feeding than the marine ones (outside and under the plume). Nevertheless, taking into account the high level of seston biomass in the whole area studied, the daily grazing pressure of mesozooplankton was very low.