Planktonic predators and copepod abundance near the Dutch coast

Hypotheses that planktonic predators are responsible for thespring-summer decrease in copepod abundance and that the dominantpredator, Pleurobrachia pileus, is associated with high concentrationsof copepods were investigated at a station near the Dutch coast.Neither hypothesis was supported. Predators and copepods weresampled together with a 156 L ‘water box’ from lateApril through early July, including the season of P.pileus abundance.Using predators and copepods from the same box samples, hencefrom the same water parcel, feeding rates on copepod naupliiand copepodites + adults were measured onboard ship. Less than6% of the copepods, the sensitivity of the method, were removedper day. In additional shipboard feeding experiments net-caughtP.pileus were added to ambient copepod densities. By combiningwater volume cleared of copepods with ambient P.pileus densityin the sea, the predicted impact was 0–1.6% of copepodseaten per day from late April to early July. The hypothesisthat P.pileus associates with copepod concentrations was testedby comparing abundances of both groups from the same box samples.The correlations were not significant for any sample series.The ways measurement methods have restricted progress in understandingthe predatory impact of Pleurobrachia sp. are also considered.