The role of zooplankton in the transmission of helminth parasites to fish.
The habitat is rich in fauna including a range of zooplankton, fish and birds.
As a consequence of the gradient in environmental conditions, the distribution of zooplankton and definitive hosts is also influenced.
Initially, the constraints of small jaw size in larval fish necessitate feeding on zooplankton, which are difficult to detect visually.
In tropical waters, zooplankton are a dominant trophic link to pelagic fish.
This decline was attributed to climatic changes that affected the entire food chain from zooplankton to fish, sea birds and marine mammals.
This pattern also determines the distribution of zooplankton, with a characteristic specific composition in different water masses.
It is not immediately clear why this should be so, but it may relate to abundance of zooplankton.
