Some effects of patchy food environments on copepods1

Abstract

Laboratory determinations of the time taken for copepods to starve to death and of the effects of discontinuous food availability on egg production are used to demonstrate that different species are adapted to different scales of patchiness in their food environment. Acartia tonsa and Centropages typicus depend on constant food availability and are therefore sensitive to small scales of patchiness whereas Pseudocalanus minutus and Calanus finmarchicus can physiologically remove themselves from such small‐scale variability. The success of these organisms in the natural environment may be related to the length of time that layers of food exist in the water column.