WILLASON ET AL.: ZOOPLANKTON IN CALIFORNIA CURRENT 



relations between the LA of both C. pacificus stages 

 and the concentration of chlorophyll a (Table 4). 



Copepod Wet and Dry Weights 



The largest female and stage V C. pacificus in 

 terms of weight were located in the northern near- 

 shore region and the smallest copepods were found 

 in the southern regions (Table 7). The average water 

 content of both C. pacificus stages from the four 

 regions was inversely related to the average dry 

 weights. Specimens of C. pacificus with the lowest 

 water content were found in the northern nearshore 

 region and those with highest water content were 

 located in the southern offshore region (Table 7). 



Figures 12 and 13 show the distribution of wet 

 weights of C. pacificus females and stage V copepo- 

 dites, respectively. Since wet and dry weights were 

 highly correlated (r = 0.81 and 0.83, P < 0.001) only 

 wet weights are shown. Both figures show a band 

 of large copepods in the nearshore region along the 

 central coast. The figures also show the variation in 

 size of each stage between areas. Copepods (both 

 stages) in the "heavy band" along the central coast 

 were almost twice the weight of copepods at some 

 of the offshore and southern stations. 



Copepod Protein and Lipid Content 



Total protein content 0*g per copepod) of both C. 



pacificus stages was highest in the northern near- 

 shore region and lowest in the two southern regions 

 (Table 7). This appears to reflect differences in cope- 

 pod size between regions as there were highly sig- 

 nificant correlations between the protein content and 

 the wet weight for both female (r = 0.82, P < 0.001) 

 and stage V C. pacificus (r = 0.69, P < 0.001). Pro- 

 tein content was not mapped since the patterns were 

 very similar to those of wet weight. 



Protein content of C. pacificus, expressed as per- 

 cent of wet weight, was quite similar between re- 

 gions: 8.9 to 10.5% for stage V copepodites and 9.3 

 and 10.8% for females (Table 7). However, both 

 stages from the southern offshore region did show 

 slightly higher protein content when expressed as 

 percent dry weight. This probably reflects the high 

 water content of copepods from the southern off- 

 shore region. 



The distributions of lipid content of female and 

 stage V C. pacificus were very patchy and showed 

 greater than fourfold variation between areas (Figs. 

 14, 15). Copepods with highest lipid values were 

 found in the area surrounding Point Conception and 

 off San Francisco Bay. Although copepod size (wet 

 weight) probably influenced the total lipid content 

 of C. pacificus to some extent, the variability of lipid 

 content cannot be attributed solely to weight. Lipid 

 content, unlike protein content, was poorly cor- 

 related with wet weight (r = 0.26 for females and 

 r = 0.38 for stage V copepodites). 



Table 7. — Calanus pacificus. Mean wet weight, dry weight, percent water, protein content, and lipid content 

 for stage V copepodites and females from each region. Numbers in parentheses are one standard deviation. 



indicates value(s) significantly greater than those of other regions (P < 0.05, f-test). 



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