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Effects of animal density, volume, and the use of 2D/3D recording on behavioral studies of copepods

  • ZOOPLANKTON ECOLOGY
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Abstract

Studies on the behavior of copepods require both an appropriate experimental design and the means to perform objectively verifiable numerical analysis. Despite the growing number of publications on copepod behavior, it has been difficult to compare these studies. In this study, we studied two species of copepods, Eurytemora affinis and Pseudodiaptomus annandalei, and employed recently developed scaling and non-scaling methodology to investigate the effects of density and volume on the swimming behavior of individual organisms in still water. We also compared the results of two- and three-dimensional projections of the swimming tracks. A combination of scale-dependent and scale-independent analysis was found to characterize a number of behavioral observations very effectively. We discovered that (i) density has no effect except to increase the time spent in the swimming state of “breaking”, (ii) smaller volumes resulted in more complex trajectories, and larger volumes, like density, increased the time spent in the swimming state “breaking”, and (iii) three-dimensional projections gave a more accurate estimation of speed and the time spent cruising. When only a vertical 2D projection was used, “cruising” could be confused with “sinking”. These results indicate that both experimental conditions and the selection of 2D or 3D projection have important implications regarding the study of copepod behavior. The development of standardized procedures with which to compare the observations made in different studies is an issue of particular urgency.

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Acknowledgments

The French segment of the research on E. affinis was funded by the Seine-Aval program. It is a contribution to the ZOOSEINE project financed by Seine-Aval IV scientific program. The Taiwanese segment was supported by grants NSC 97-2621-B-019-001 from the National Science Council of Taiwan and from National Taiwan Ocean University (CMBB 97529002A9) to J. S. Hwang. The authors are indebted to Michel Priem, Daniel Hilde, and Dominique Menu for helping with E. affinis sampling, to David Devreker for his help with E. affinis sorting, and to Delphine Beyrend-Dur for her help with P. annandalei sampling and sorting. This study is part of the bilateral CNRS-NSC Taiwan project no. 17473 entitled “Study of behavioral activity and spatial and temporal distribution of copepods in two contrasting ecosystems: temperate (France) and sub-tropical (Taiwan).” This study is a contribution to the co-tutorial Ph.D. project of G. Dur between National Taiwan Ocean University and the University of Sciences and Technologies of Lille. We thank the reviewers for significant contribution they have made in the revised version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-ning Road, Keelung, 20224, Taiwan, ROC

    Gaël Dur, François-Gaël Michalec, Mohamed-Sofiane Mahjoub & Jiang-Shiou Hwang

  2. Université Lille Nord de France, 59000, Lille, France

    Sami Souissi, François Schmitt, François-Gaël Michalec & Mohamed-Sofiane Mahjoub

  3. LOG, Station Marine de Wimereux, USTL, 28 av. Foch, 62930, Wimereux, France

    Sami Souissi, François Schmitt, François-Gaël Michalec & Mohamed-Sofiane Mahjoub

  4. LOG, CNRS-UMR 8187, 62930, Wimereux, France

    Sami Souissi, François Schmitt, François-Gaël Michalec & Mohamed-Sofiane Mahjoub

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  1. Gaël Dur
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  2. Sami Souissi
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  4. François-Gaël Michalec
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Dur, G., Souissi, S., Schmitt, F. et al. Effects of animal density, volume, and the use of 2D/3D recording on behavioral studies of copepods. Hydrobiologia 666, 197–214 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0586-z

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