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Ecological significance of individual variability in copepod bioenergetics

  • Part One: Rate Processes in Field Populations of Planktonic Copepods
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Abstract

High interstage variability in body length and mass, reproductive state, and metabolic activity is characteristic of copepod populations from the Barents Sea and coastal waters in Sweden and Norway. The dry weight of a given copepodite stage, sampled at a given time from a homogeneous water mass, may vary by a factor of 4–5 between extreme individuals, protein and particularly lipid content being even more variable. Similarly, high variability in gut fullness and grazing rate within defined copepodite stages typically occurs at all times of the year, both when measured as in situ rate or experimentally determined rate, using homogeneous food suspensions. In accordance with this, maturation state (measured as length of gonads) and spawning (measured as rate of egg production over 24 h) are highly variable factors at the individual level. Since all these factors also influence the metabolic rate of the animals the respiratory rate (measured as ETS activity) of comparable individuals may vary by a factor of 5 or more. The results indicate that high individual variability in size and activity parameters is universal. This can not be explained by existing models of feeding behaviour, growth and development, and calls for new models, in which the nutritional history of the individual may play an important role.

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  1. Institute of Marine Biology, University of Bergen, N-5065, Blomsterdalen, Norway

    Ulf Båmstedt

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  1. Ulf Båmstedt
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Båmstedt, U. Ecological significance of individual variability in copepod bioenergetics. Hydrobiologia 167, 43–59 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00026293

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