Copepod carcasses in a tropical estuary during different hydrographical settings.

Abstract

Dead copepods (carcasses) are widespread in aquatic systems, but their scientific quantification is rare due to the difficulty in discriminating them from live ones. In this paper, we hypothesized that due to large spatial and temporal changes in hydrography in the Cochin backwaters, the percentage of copepod carcasses in the system could also change significantly on a spatial and temporal scale. In order to understand this aspect, we quantified the live and dead copepods in the Cochin backwaters under different hydrographical settings based on live and mortal staining technique. The most prominent temporal hydrographical feature during the study period was the large decline in salinity across the system, which was more pronounced downstream (15-20 units) and was caused by the large freshwater influx associated with the southwest monsoon. During the entire sampling period, copepod carcasses were pervasive all over the study area with large spatial and temporal variations in their percentage contribution (2.5-35.8%) to the total community abundance. During all sampling, carcasses concentrated more in the downstream region, with maximum turbidity (16.5-35.8%), than in the upstream region (2.5-14.5%). The percentage of carcasses was the highest during the onset of the southwest monsoon (av. 23.64±8.09%), followed by the pre-southwest monsoon (av. 13.59±6.72%) and southwest monsoon (av. 8.75±4.14%). During the onset of the southwest monsoon, copepod carcasses in the downstream were contributed by ∼80% high saline and ∼15% low saline species, indicating a salinity shock-induced mortality. On the other hand, the cumulative effect of the long residence time of the Cochin backwaters and high partial predation rate of carnivores contributed to the high abundance of carcasses during the pre-monsoon.