ABSTRACT
The role of zooplankton and their particulate products in the biogeochemical cycling and vertical transport of natural radionuclides, such as 210Po and 210Pb, in the marine environment has been the subject of both field and experimental laboratory studies for many years. The capacity of zooplankton to appreciably influence Po water concentrations in the euphotic zone of these oligotrophic waters was a major hypothesis of investigation in this empirical and associated modeling study. The model used to predict Po and Pb water concentrations ascribed their loss from the euphotic zone as being solely due to the fecal pellets produced by zooplankton that were identified as being dominated numerically by calanoid and cyclopoid copepods. The capacity of zooplankton to appreciably influence 210Po water concentrations in the euphotic zone of these oligotrophic waters was a major hypothesis of investigation in this empirical and associated modeling study.
