Size paradigms in copepod communities: a re-examination

A longstanding view in zooplankton research has been that large copepods are the important members of most communities. It has also been thought that warm water communities contain smaller copepods than temperate waters, with cold polar waters containing large species. We present copepod size spectra from detailed microscopic analysis of tropical and temperate locations, to challenge these paradigms. While the size range of copepods does increase with decreasing temperature and with depth into oceanic waters, the fundamental attributes of the size spectra are similar. Small copepods and early developmental stages dominate all communities.