Recruitment and mortality of Calanus eggs and nauplii

Mortality in marine copepods can be more important than
fecundity and growth in the determine spatio-temporal
patterns of abundance, biomass and secondary productivity.
As the mortality of egg and nauplii is most variable, least
understood, and yet by far the greatest, we place most emphasis
on these stages. We will measure early mortality and its
variability in Calanus, assess underlying causes, with the aim of
understanding the consequences of changing physical and biological
forces in the natural environment. We will perform detailed
experimental work in the laboratory, make appropriate measures
in the North Atlantic, and work at the L4 station off Plymouth, and
Stonehaven off Aberdeen. The study will target fecundity and hatch
success as recruitment terms, and the effects of food, starvation,
and temperature on early nauplii development, growth and
survival/mortality in C. finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus. Rates of
cannibalistic predation and their control will be investigated, as
well as determining which predators are most important at the North
Atlantic stations.