Development of a global model of growth and fecundity in marine planktonic copepods: accounting for food availability

Over the past 30 years much effort has been expended on measuring the fecundity, growth and production of copepods. This has led to attempts to predict these rates and to understand which factors are of primary control in determining their variability. The over-riding limitation of recent global models (eg. Hirst & Lampitt 1998; Huntley & Lopez, 1992) is that these lack food quality and quantity components. Prey resource probably explains much of the variation that remains unaccounted for. Drawing on the wealth of published material we will use allometric through to species-sensitive approaches to examine the role of food in controlling growth and fecundity. Through the synthesis we will also improve our ability to predict these rates.