Is the growth of marine copepods limited by food quantity or quality? (original) (raw)
2021, Limnology and oceanography letters
Marine copepods are ubiquitous and play important roles in sustaining fish stocks, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration in deep waters. Our ability to represent these tiny animals in ocean biogeochemical models is hindered by an incomplete understanding of how the quantity and quality of food influence their growth. Using a state-of-the-art model that includes an explicit representation of metabolism, and which has carbon and nitrogen as currencies, we demonstrate that copepod growth is limited by the quantity of organic matter consumed when feeding on typical marine phytoplankton. Our work highlights the benefit of incorporating realistic physiology into plankton models and paves the way for improved predictions of the role of copepods in models of fish production and global biogeochemical cycles.
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