Acoustical identification of the concentration layer of a copepod species, Calanus euxinus

Abstract

Swimming trajectories of Calanus euxinus Hulsemann in the Black Sea were studied using an echosounder at 120 and 200 kHz. C. euxinus were acoustically discriminated with respect to vertical migration and swimming speed, according to dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration and the timing of migrations. Species became torpid in water with DO values <0.5 mg l⁻¹. The time spent swimming under DO conditions between 2 and 5 mg l⁻¹ was insignificant, and varied greatly from the 10% to 25% of total time spent swimming under normoxic conditions (5–10 mg l⁻¹). C. euxinus formed a concentration layer in the water of 1–3 m thickness. Upward migration was completed in about 3.5 h, starting 2.5 h before and ending 1 h after sunset (average rate: 0.95 cm s⁻¹) in summer. Species ascended discretely from the suboxic to the lower boundry of the cold intermediate layer (CIL) at 0.82 cm s⁻¹, and passed up the CIL and thermocline fast (2.3 cm s⁻¹). Downward migration took less time (2 h), starting ~1 h before and ending ~1 h after sunrise. Swimming speed within the thermocline and CIL was 2.7 cm s⁻¹; copepods subsequently returned to daylight depth at a sinking speed of 0.57 cm s⁻¹. Total time for C. euxinus to settle to their nocturnal depth layer was about 5 h.