Phosphorus content of zooplankton from the Inland Sea of Japan

Abstract

Measurements of phosphorus content were made for eleven species of copepods, two species of mysids, shrimps (including mysis stage) and chaetognaths, and one species ofNoctiluca, cirriped (naupliar stage) and crab (zoeal stage) from the Inland Sea of Japan. The body phosphorus content (P, inµg) is highly correlated to prosome length (L, inµm) for copepods, which is expressed as logP=2.90 ×logL−9.34. Mean phosphorus content expressed as percent of dry weight is 1.30% for copepods, 1.39% for mysids, 0.63% for a decapod shrimpAcetes japonicus, and 0.80% for chaetognaths.Noctiluca contains phosphorus of only 0.36%. The comparatively higher phosphorus content of suspension-feeding copepods may be related to the constant supply of phosphorus-rich phytoplankton in this region.