---
title: "What the sources say about the Calanus Copepod | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "26 claims from the Calanus Copepod profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
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---

# What the sources say about the Calanus Copepod (*Calanus finmarchicus*)

> 26 claims from the Calanus Copepod profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Calanus Copepod](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/calanus-copepod/)

## Hatlebakk et al. (2022). Contrasting Life Traits of Sympatric Calanus glacialis and C. finmarchicus in a Warming Arctic Revealed by a Year-Round Study in Isfjorden, Svalbard. Frontiers in Marine Science.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.877910

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| counted one as adult when its prosome, the front part of the body, measured 2.4 to 2.95 millimetres | AF/AM 2.4-2.95 (note: Table 1 of the paper, column C. finmarchicus (the other column is C. glacialis); caption: size ranges (prosome length, mm) used to differentiate copepodite stages and adult females and males (AF/AM) in this Isfjorden, Svalbard study, after Daase and Eiane (2007), Choquet et al. (2018) and Daase et al. (2018). Scoped on the page as the study's adult criterion.) |
| Towards the end of summer, it descends to deeper water and spends the winter dormant, a state called diapause | All three perform seasonal migrations, descending to deeper depths towards the end of the summer to spend the unproductive winter in a state of dormancy (diapause) |
| In that Svalbard fjord, C. finmarchicus overwintered mainly at stage CV, the last juvenile stage, with 65 percent of them there | C. finmarchicus overwintered mainly as CV (65%) (note: CV last juvenile stage: Table 1 runs CI-CV then AF/AM; Cole: "Juvenile C. finmarchicus have a flexible life history, where they can either enter diapause or moult into their adult life stage.") |
| In the northernmost part of its range, its life cycle takes one year | has a 1-year life cycle in the northernmost part of its distribution range |
| Atlantic currents regularly carry it in high numbers into the Arctic | It is regularly transported in high numbers into the Arctic with the Atlantic currents |
| It is expanding northwards, and it may potentially replace its larger relative Calanus glacialis if the climate continues to warm | its smaller North Atlantic sibling Calanus finmarchicus is expanding northwards and may potentially replace it if the climate continues to warm |
| About a year, in the northernmost part of its range. Where researchers sampled it through the winter in Isfjorden, Svalbard, most overwintering animals (65 percent) were at stage CV, a pattern they read as a mainly one-year life cycle | C. finmarchicus overwintered mainly as CV (65%), reflecting a primarily two- and one-year life cycle, respectively. |
| Towards the end of summer it descends to deeper water and spends the winter dormant | All three perform seasonal migrations, descending to deeper depths towards the end of the summer to spend the unproductive winter in a state of dormancy (diapause) (note: vibe.reason, same quote as the body) |
| Not Evaluated | its smaller North Atlantic sibling Calanus finmarchicus (note: stats.conservationStatus. Anchors the species name only; the body makes no status claim. GBIF's copy of the IUCN Red List returns category NOT_EVALUATED for Calanus finmarchicus (Gunnerus, 1770) (api.gbif.org/v1/species/5166399/iucnRedListCategory, fetched 2026-10-11); an API endpoint can't be cited, and no page found states it, so no IUCN reference is cited (#1227).) |

## Jónasdóttir et al. (2015). Seasonal copepod lipid pump promotes carbon sequestration in the deep North Atlantic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512110112

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| this one species sequesters an amount of carbon equivalent to the sinking flux of detrital material | one species, the copepod Calanus finmarchicus overwintering in the North Atlantic, sequesters an amount of carbon equivalent to the sinking flux of detrital material |
| Overwintering zooplankton carry carbon-rich lipids down and metabolise them at depth. Researchers called this the lipid pump, and found that adding it almost doubles earlier estimates of biological carbon storage in the deep North Atlantic | It involves the vertical transport and metabolism of carbon rich lipids by overwintering zooplankton. ... Inclusion of the lipid pump almost doubles the previous estimates of deep-ocean carbon sequestration by biological processes in the North Atlantic. |

## Cole et al. (2019). Effects of Nylon Microplastic on Feeding, Lipid Accumulation, and Moulting in a Coldwater Copepod. Environmental Science & Technology.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01853

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Calanus finmarchicus is a copepod, a small crustacean | a boreal (coldwater) copepod (note: Copepods are crustaceans (definitional); Cole calls it the dominant mesozooplankton species in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea.) |
| Its energy store is a large oil sac made of wax esters, built up while it is young and food is plentiful | The energetic reserve of C. finmarchicus takes the form of a large oil sac, comprising wax esters with long-chain fatty acids and fatty alcohols, built-up during their juvenile life stages in periods of high food availability. |
| For copepods, lipid mass is directly related to how deep they can descend during diapause. Smaller reserves mean overwintering at shallower depths, where they are more prone to predation | Lipid mass is directly related to the depth at which copepods can successfully descend during diapause; smaller lipid reserves would result in overwintering at shallower depths leaving these copepods more prone to predation. (note: General copepod statement in Cole, kept at copepod scope.) |
| Its lipid stores make it nutritionally valuable to fish and whales | These lipid stores make C. finmarchicus nutritionally valuable to higher-trophic organisms (e.g., fish, whales) |
| It is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere and is the dominant mesozooplankton species in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea | a boreal (coldwater) copepod that is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere and the dominant mesozooplankton species in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea |
| In a lab test, juvenile copepods exposed to nylon granules built up less lipid | lipid accumulation was stymied in preadult copepods exposed to nylon granules (note: Lab exposure of preadult (CV) C. finmarchicus from NTNU cultures.) |
| those exposed to nylon microplastics moulted, or shed their outer skeleton, earlier than unexposed ones | copepods exposed to nylon microplastics moulted significantly earlier than copepods in the control treatment |
| A small North Atlantic copepod whose oil sac fuels a winter sleep in deep water | descend to deeper waters and enter a state of dormancy over winter (note: Tagline parts: North Atlantic copepod (hatlebakk-2022 quote above), oil sac (cole-2019 quote above), winter dormancy at depth (hatlebakk-2022 quote above).) |
| Cold waters of the North Atlantic, including the North Sea and Norwegian Sea | a boreal (coldwater) copepod that is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere and the dominant mesozooplankton species in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea (note: North Atlantic: Hatlebakk 'its smaller North Atlantic sibling Calanus finmarchicus'.) |
| Stores energy in a large oil sac of wax esters | The energetic reserve of C. finmarchicus takes the form of a large oil sac, comprising wax esters |

## Evjemo, Reitan & Olsen (2003). Copepods as live food organisms in the larval rearing of halibut larvae (Hippoglossus hippoglossus L.) with special emphasis on the nutritional value. Aquaculture.

https://doi.org/10.1016/s0044-8486(03)00503-9

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| In one analysis, lipids (fats and oils) made up 22 to 25 percent of the dry weight of its later juvenile stages and adults | increasing to 22-25% in copepodid stages IV, V and the adult stages |

## Ohman & Runge (1994). Sustained fecundity when phytoplankton resources are in short supply: Omnivory by Calanus finmarchicus in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Limnology and Oceanography.

https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1994.39.1.0021

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| It eats algae, but in the open Gulf of St. Lawrence, microplankton that feed on other organisms, including ciliates and dinoflagellates presumed to feed that way, made up a disproportionate share of its ration | the rate of ingestion of autotrophic particles. Heterotrophic microplankton—including ciliates and dinoflagellates presumed to be heterotrophic—constituted a disproportionate fraction of the ration of C. finmarchicus in the open Gulf of St. Lawrence (note: Algae = autotrophic particles it ingested; heterotrophic glossed as feeding on other organisms.) |
| Algae and other microplankton, including ciliates and dinoflagellates | the rate of ingestion of autotrophic particles. Heterotrophic microplankton—including ciliates and dinoflagellates presumed to be heterotrophic—constituted a disproportionate fraction of the ration of C. finmarchicus |

## Vroom et al. (2017). Aging of microplastics promotes their ingestion by marine zooplankton. Environmental Pollution.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.08.088

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| In a separate feeding experiment, all stages of C. finmarchicus ingested polystyrene fragments, and late juveniles (stage CV) and adults preferred aged microbeads over pristine ones | All stages of Calanus finmarchicus ingested polystyrene fragments. Aged microbeads were preferred over pristine ones by females of Acartia longiremis as well as juvenile copepodites CV and adults of Calanus finmarchicus. |
| In a feeding experiment, yes: every life stage swallowed polystyrene fragments. Much of the plastic passed out again within 2 to 4 hours, and an 11-day exposure did not affect the survival of adult females | All stages of Calanus finmarchicus ingested polystyrene fragments. ... Much of the ingested plastic was, however, egested within a short time period (2-4 h) and the survival of adult Calanus females was not affected in an 11-day exposure. |