The insects of the sea
The biggest biomass in the oceans
The base of the marine food webs
Tiny creatures but a lot of superlatives! Every zoologist of course is convinced that the group he or she studies is the most important. But honestly, in respect to copepods there are really good arguments for this belief!
Copepods are crustaceans. They are found almost everywhere where water is available and they constitute the biggest source of protein in the oceans. Most of the economically important fishes depend on copepods and even the whales in the northern hemisphere feed on them. Trillions of litte copepod guts produce countless fecal pellets contributing greatly to the marine snow and therefore accelerating the flow of nutrients and minerals from surface waters to the bottom of the seas. Predatory freshwater copepods have been successfully used to control pests like Dengue fever.
The following pages offer a short introduction into the biology of copepods. There is a slight overemphasis on harpacticoid copepods since most of our scientific work is devoted to these bottom dwellers.
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