Aquatic ecology and Biodiversity

Unit 7- Biotic communities

7.4. Crustacean copepods
Crustaceans are non gelatinous important forms of the zooplankton. The crustaceans are divided into subclasses 1.Brachiopoda 2. Cirripedia 3. Ostracoda 4. Copepod 5. Cladocera 6. Cumaceae 7. Mysidaceae 8. Euphausidae 9. Amphipoda 10. Isopoda etc.
Copepods are dominant constituents of zooplankton present in all seas. Copepods serve as the chief food of the commercially important shoaling fishes. Diatoms constitute the principle food for most planktonic copepods. More than 4500 species of copepods have been described, of which about 90% are marine. Copepods are divided into seven suborders. Among them, calanoida(Microcalanus sp, Eucalanus sp. Temora sp. Lebidocera sp. Pontella sp. Acartia sp. etc); cyclopoida(Copilia sp, Oncaea sp, Sapphirina sp, Corycaeus sp. etc. and herpecticoids (Macrosetella sp, Clytemnestra sp. Aegisthus sp. etc.are importent.

Cladocera (water fleas)
Cladocerans are important marine zooplankton, abundant in plankton samples Cladocerans feed on phytoplankton and also on detritus matter. Cladocerans such as Penilia, Evadne and Podon are found distributed in inshore waters. They are extremely seasonal, reach high density for short period in temperate waters. They reproduce parthenogenetically.

Ostracods
The ostrocods are smaller crustaceans abundant in tropical coastal waters. Ostrocods are characterized by having carapace shell as bivalve shell. Species like Gigantocypris. Conchoccia, Halocypris Cypridina, Sarsiella etc. have wide distribution in marine waters