Comparison of FlowCam Macro and traditional microscopy for studying mesopelagic copepod community composition

Semiautonomous imaging technologies are increasingly being used to characterize zooplankton communities, albeit with limited comparison to traditional techniques. Here we compared copepod community compositions obtained using a FlowCam Macro with those obtained using a stereomicroscope for the same set of samples. Broad-level community compositions obtained via the FlowCam Macro were similar to those using the microscope, although the microscope was able to achieve greater taxonomic resolution (e.g. genus/species level). Our data support the use of the FlowCam Macro as an alternative to time- and labour-intensive microscopy for broad-level taxonomic classification of mesozooplankton samples.