ausblenden:
Schlagwörter:
-
Zusammenfassung:
Intrazooplankton predation by copepods is considered to greatly influence the species and size
composition of a plankton Community (CONFER 1971; LANE 1978; BRANDL & FERNANDO 1981). Cyclopoid copepods often change their feeding habits during development. Nauplii and small
copepodites are usually herbivorous, but become omnivorous or carnivorous as late copepodites
and adults (GRAS 1971; GOPHEN 1977; LANDRY 1981). Cannibalism is frequently observed (FRYER
1957; MCQUEEN 1969; BRANDL & FERNANDO 1979) and may play an important role when cyclopoids are the dominant species or even appear as nearly a monoculture (BURGIS & WALKER 1972;
JOHNSON & WALKER 1973). In the absence of alternative prey, carnivorous cyclopoids could utilize
nanoplanktonic primary production by consuming their own herbivorous offspring. Thus, when
combined with a shift from herbivory to carnivory during copepod development, cannibalism may
be advantageous. We used a mathematical model to: (1) study the effect of cannibalism on population dynamics; and (2) assess the level of cannibalism tolerable without population extinction.
