Seasonal variability of egg production rates of calanoid copepod Centropages furcatus (Dana, 1852) in Bahia de La Paz, Mexico

Abstract

The egg production rate (EPR) was estimated for Centropages furcatus in Bahia de La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico during 2003. This species is one of the most abundant and frequent copepod in the zone. The highest egg production in carbon estimations for C. furcatus were observed in summer (1.20 ± 0.7 µg C female-1 d-1) and the lowest was found during spring (0.58 ± 0.42 µg C female-1 d-1). The longest prosome length (PL) was registered in summer (1.15 ± 0.05 mm) and the shorter during autumn (1.01 ± 0.04 mm). No significant correlation was found in a daily base between EPR and PL with chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration neither the sea surface temperature (SST). In temporal scale, in winter, spring and summer the SST was low (<23.2°C) in contrast, autumn presented high SST (>27 °C). Chl a was low (<1 mg m-3) in winter, spring and autumn, whereas in summer it was high (>3 mg m-3). Although the correlation was non significant between the biological parameters and the environmental variables (p> 0.05), the species showed high values of LP and TPH in summer when SST were low and the concentration of Chl a was high.