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The copepod fauna of Middle Atlantic Bight waters regularly includes four species of Centropages: C. typicus, C. hamatus, C. velificatus, and C. bradyi. Seasonal collections of copepods with coarse-meshed (0.5 mm) bongo and neuston nets were often dominated by one of these congeners. A fifth species, C. violaceus, occurs very rarely, presumably as an expatriate from the Gulf Stream. C. typicus was the dominant large copepod in most seasons, especially at midshelf, but was largely replaced by Calanus finmarchicus after a severely cold winter (1977). The other Centropages species were less abundant and widespread: C. hamatus dominated inshore collections during winter and spring of 1977; C. bradyi was restricted mostly to outer shelf stations and was never abundant; C. velificatus appeared more frequently in the southern Bight, where it dominated a few inner shelf neuston collections in summer and fall. |
