Impact of suspended particulate matter on egg production of the estuarine copepod, Eurytemora affinis

Egg production rate and gut pigment content of Eurytemora affinis were meas ured in the Gironde, Westerschelde and Elbe estuaries. These represent vari ous conditions with respect to suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentra tion. Egg production rate varied as a function of temperature and was stron gly affected by high SPM concentration. Specific gut pigment content (Gsp) and specific pigment ingestion also clearly decreased when SPM concentratio n increased, suggesting that SPM concentration could influence egg producti on rate through a vegetal prey uptake limitation and that E. affinis either gained an energetic advantage by vegetal prey ingestion or needed vegetal prey in order to obtain a minimum amount of specific component required for egg production. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.