We describe the kinematics of escape jumps in three species of 0.3-3.0 mm-sized planktonic copepods. We find similar kinematics between species with periodically alternating power strokes and passive coasting and a resulting highly fluctuating escape velocity. By direct numerical simulations, we estimate the force and power output needed to accelerate and overcome drag. Both are very high compa...

Blooms of the phytoplankton Phaeocystis can comprise 85% of total production and generate major biogeochemical signals across broad oceanic regions. The success of Phaeocystis may result from its ability to change size by many orders of magnitude when it shifts from small cells of 4-6 microm to large colonies of up to 30,000 microm in diameter. Single cells are consumed by ciliates but not cope...

Virus population growth depends on contacts between viruses and their hosts. It is often unclear how sufficient contacts are made between viruses and their specific hosts to generate spikes in viral abundance. Here, we show that copepods, acting as predators, can bring aquatic viruses and their algal hosts into contact. Specifically, predation of the protist Paramecium bursaria by copepods resu...

Marine calanoid copepods colonize new habitats, and some become invasive. Their fitness, measured by intrinsic growth rate and net reproductive rate, is partially driven by biochemical processes. Thus, it is a function of ambient temperature. Biochemical processes may not be approximated well by yearly mean temperature alone when temperature cycles yearly, largely. Higher order moments may also...

Copepods from La Plata, Argentina were investigated to characterize the local community of larvivorous copepods inhabiting mosquito breeding sites and to identify new predator species of the mosquitoes which occur in artificial containers, Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens. Diversity of larvivorous cyclopoids was highest in permanent pools. Predation by sex and age, selectivity on mosquito specie...

The timing and magnitude of an escape reaction is often the determining factor governing a copepod's success at avoiding predation. Copepods initiate rapid and directed escapes in response to fluid signals created by predators; however little is known about how copepods modulate their behavior in response to additional sensory input. This study investigates the effect of light level on the esca...

Using in situ mesocosm experiments, we compared grazing rates, food-selection patterns and nutrient mineralization rates of a daphniid cladoceran and a diaptomid copepod to determine their infl uence on phytoplankton composition and the prevalence of N-fi xing cyanobacteria. We show that grazing and nutrient mineralization may act synergistically within a grazer taxon. Cladocerans exhibited non...

Reduced grazing on harmful algal bloom species has been attributed to both the feeding deterrence and toxicity of the algae. Both toxic and deterrent effects of dinoflagellates of the genus Alexandrium, which contain toxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning, have been reported on different copepod species. We examined how toxin-containing Alexandrium fundyense affected ingestion rates of...

Symbiosis is one of the most successful modes of life displayed by aquatic organisms, as measured by the number of times it evolved and how many symbiotic species are presently in existence. Among the Crustacea copepods utilize an extraordinary range of hosts, occurring on virtually every phylum of marine macroinvertebrates and, jointly with the monogeneans, are the most speciose group of metaz...

The small-scale spatial and temporal dynamics of phycosphere-sized chemical signals entrained within the feeding current of copepods is quantified here by combining flow visualization techniques with electrochemical technology (IVEC-10). Using the 30-mm electrochemical probe sampling at 50 Hz and the velocity gradients created by two marine copepods, we evaluated how odor deformation improves t...