JPR Advance Access originally published online on October 19, 2005
Journal of Plankton Research 2005 27(10):1003-1012; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi087
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mass density contrast in relation to the feeding currents in calanoid copepods
1 Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA and 2 Great Lakes Water Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53204, USA
* Corresponding Author: hsjiang{at}whoi.edu
Received August 10, 2005; accepted in principle September 28, 2005; accepted for publication October 10, 2005; published online October 19, 2005
Communicating editor: R.P. Harris
Theoretical analyses show that positively buoyant copepods are able to generate feeding currents by adopting upside-down body positions and pushing water upward. Thus, the excess buoyancy acting on the copepods will be balanced and cone-shaped feeding currents generated to transport water to the capture areas. The intensities of the feeding currents, which can be measured in the present modeling study by calculating the volumetric flux going through the capture areas, are proportional to the mass density contrasts between the copepods and the ambient seawater. The mass density contrasts may vary spatially and temporally depending on copepod body contents and on the properties of the seawater immediately surrounding them. We focus on the case where the mass density contrast between a wax ester-rich copepod and its ambient seawater can vary strongly with depth because wax esters are more compressible and 610 times more thermally expansible than seawater. These theoretical analyses show that the intensities of the feeding currents generated by wax ester-rich copepods vary strongly with depth. Our conclusions from these theoretical analyses need to be tested by direct observations.
This paper is one of six on the subject of the role of zooplankton predatorprey interactions in structuring plankton communities.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
A. W. Visser, P. Mariani, and S. Pigolotti Swimming in turbulence: zooplankton fitness in terms of foraging efficiency and predation risk J. Plankton Res., February 1, 2009; 31(2): 121 - 133. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
H. Jiang and J. R. Strickler Copepod flow modes and modulation: a modelling study of the water currents produced by an unsteadily swimming copepod Phil Trans R Soc B, November 29, 2007; 362(1487): 1959 - 1971. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||

