Lipids of four boreal species of calanoid copepods: origin of monoene fats of marine animals at higher trophic levels in the grazing food chain in the subarctic ocean ecosystem

Lipid and fatty acid/alcohol compositions of the subarctic copepods Neocalanus cristatus and Eucalanus bungii from various depths in the Oyashio region, western North Pacific

“…Saito and Kotani (2000) reported even a predominance of this 20:1(n − 11) isomer as alcohol moiety in both N. cristatus and N. flemingeri. In contrast to these Pacific species, the 20:1(n−11) isomer is almost absent from the North Atlantic, Arctic and Antarctic herbivorous Calanus and Calanoides species, instead the 20:1(n − 9) is a major alcohol (Kattner et al, 1994;Falk-Petersen et al, 2009).…”

“…Although these earlier studies have documented the lipid deposition and how it corresponds to copepod development, the amount of stored lipids has been mainly described by visual determination, i.e., the size of the oil droplet in the body (Ikeda et al, 1990;Tsuda et al, 2001;Shoden et al, 2005). Gravimetric analysis of lipids in copepods revealed that total lipid contents ranged from 12 to 70% of body dry mass (Nakai, 1942;Saito and Kotani, 2000;Kotani, 2006). The lipid class and fatty acid/alcohol compositions of these copepods were also described by Saito and Kotani (2000) and Kotani (2006).…”

“…Gravimetric analysis of lipids in copepods revealed that total lipid contents ranged from 12 to 70% of body dry mass (Nakai, 1942;Saito and Kotani, 2000;Kotani, 2006). The lipid class and fatty acid/alcohol compositions of these copepods were also described by Saito and Kotani (2000) and Kotani (2006). They analyzed the lipid components of C4 to adult stages collected in April-May (Saito and Kotani, 2000) and October (Kotani, 2006), however, the changes of lipid accumulation and components associated with habitat depth could not be considered because the samples were collected from only one depth stratum (0-400 or 500 m).…”

“…The lipid class and fatty acid/alcohol compositions of these copepods were also described by Saito and Kotani (2000) and Kotani (2006). They analyzed the lipid components of C4 to adult stages collected in April-May (Saito and Kotani, 2000) and October (Kotani, 2006), however, the changes of lipid accumulation and components associated with habitat depth could not be considered because the samples were collected from only one depth stratum (0-400 or 500 m). In the present study, we have succeeded to collect a data set of lipid and fatty acid/alcohol compositions of different lipid deposition types from various depth strata during the periods of higher phytoplankton biomass (March and May, i.e., pre-and after-blooming) and lower biomass (December) in the Oyashio region.…”

“…The major lipid components of the older stages of N. cristatus are wax esters with the important long-chain monounsaturated fatty acid and alcohol moieties, 20:1 and 22:1, whereas E. bungii contains substantial quantities of triacylglycerols with the major fatty acids 16:0, 16:1(n−7) and 20:5(n−3) (Saito and Kotani, 2000). These differences in lipid and fatty acid compositions are due to the different life histories of the copepod species as shown for other cold and temperate water copepods investigated by Kattner and Krause (1987) and Kattner et al (1994).…”