Marine zooplankton comprise a phylogenetically and functionally diverse assemblage of
protistan and metazoan consumers that occupy multiple trophic levels in pelagic food webs.
Within this complex network, carbon flows via alternative zooplankton pathways drive
temporal and spatial variability in production-grazing coupling, nutrient cycling, export, and
transfer efficiency to higher trophic levels. We explore current knowledge of the processing
of zooplankton food ingestion by absorption, egestion, respiration, excretion, and growth …