Do copepods senesce? And how fast? New study demonstrates that copepods with a risk-taking feeding- and mate-finding behavior senesce earlier and have much shorter average adult life-spans, even in the absence of predators, than copepods with a safer behavior.
The average duration of the adult lifespan of small neritic copepods, kept in a protected laboratory environment under optimal conditions, vary by an order of magnitude, from less than 2 weeks to about 4 months. In a new paper, Thomas, Sara, and Uffe examine why different species invest so differently in maintaining themselves. They test the hypothesis that species with a high-risk behavior should invest less in survival and more in reproduction, than species that find food and mates in a safer manner. Ambush feeders, for example, that move very little have a much lower risk of encountering a predator than a copepod that cruises though the water in search of food. And males that sacrifice feeding to race around in search for females live a more dangerous life than females that just passively wait to be found. In general, they find support for this hypothesis and thus demonstrate how various aspects of behavior and life histories are interrelated through trade-offs in a predictable manner.
Read the paper here