The copepod width–weight relation and its utility in food chain research

Abstract

A review of several methods for estimating copepod wet weight from linear dimensions shows that, as expected, precision in estimation is gained at the expense of generality. Body width, however, is a better estimator of wet weight than either total length or prosome length and is less ambiguous in use.Body width is also the controlling parameter in prey selection by many important marine and freshwater predators including birds, fish, and some plankters. For estimating ingested prey biomass it thus seems the best single linear size parameter.