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Feeding biology of Calanus: a new perspective

  • Part Two: The Taxonomy and Biology of Calanus
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Abstract

Calanus has been, for a variety of reasons, one of the most popular subjects of copepod feeding studies, and much of what we have learned from studies of Calanus has been applied to other species of copepods. Nearly all the major factors controlling feeding rate and behavior in Calanus have been known for more than three decades. These forcing functions include light, body weight, temperature, the quantity, size and quality of food, and feeding history. The relationships between these variables are better understood than they were three decades ago, but the current knowledge of them still fails to explain extraordinary variance in observations of feeding rate.

I suggest that the current understanding fails because our fundamental perception is incorrect. It is generally assumed that the feeding behavior we observe is the net response to instantaneous values of a suite of functions. Past values of forcing functions may be considered a factor, but subservient to those in the present. The critical change in perspective suggested here requires that we assume the integrals of forcing functions to be more significant than their present values in regulating feeding behavior.

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  1. Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, A-002, 92093, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Mark Huntley

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Huntley, M. Feeding biology of Calanus: a new perspective. Hydrobiologia 167, 83–99 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00026296

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