Calanoid copepods
Order Calanoida
The Calanoid copepods (Order Calanoida) includes 2 species across 2 families and 4 genera in our directory.
About Calanoid copepods
Calanoida includes ~2,700 described species of planktonic copepods. By some estimates, copepods are the most abundant multicellular animals on Earth - their total biomass exceeds that of all other zooplankton combined.
Economic Impact
Calanoid copepods are the foundation of marine food webs - they are the primary food of larval fish, small fish, and baleen whales. Without copepods, most commercial fisheries would collapse.
Ecological Role
Copepods transfer energy from microscopic phytoplankton to larger animals. They perform the largest animal migration on Earth daily - billions rise from deep water to surface at dusk and descend at dawn (diel vertical migration), moving carbon to the deep ocean.
