Calanoida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Arcartiidae |
Calanoida, the calanoids, are an order of copepods, a kind of zooplankton. They include 43 families with about 2000 species (Boltovskoy et al. 1999) of both marine and freshwater copepods. Calanoid copepods are important in many food webs, taking in energy from phytoplankton and algae and 'repackaging' it for consumption by higher trophic level predators like birds, fishes and mammals. Many commercial fishes are dependent on calanoid copepods for diet in either their larval or adult forms. Baleen whales such as the bowhead whale eat copepods of the genera Calanus and Neocalanus, as do planktivorous seabirds like Crested Auklets, Least Auklets and Dovekies.
[edit] References
Boltovskoy, D., Gibbons, M.J., Hutchings, L. & Binet, D., 1999. General biological features of the South Atlantic. In: Boltovskoy, D. (ed.). Zooplankton of the South Atlantic. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. pp. i-xvi+1706. (2 volumes)
