A Long-term Sampling Study of Copepods Across aTropical Creek in Mombasa, Kenya

Abstract

Port Reitz is influenced by inland water influx and oceanic water, and offers nursery and feeding grounds for prawns postlarvae and fish (Groove et al., 1986). Since many of the thousands of copepod taxa present in the sea may not be directly involved in prawns post-larva and larva fish food webs, the aim of this study is to identify those copepods which are the food of larval prawns and fish. As a complement to our previous investigations on the pelagic zone of Tudor Creek near Mombasa (Okemwa and Revis, 1986) we obtained six 24-h series of zooplankton samples from the Likoni Ferry. By sampling at 2-h intervals in each 24-h cycle and after every 2 months for a year, we assessed the influence of tidal cycles on the did l fluctuation of different copepod taxa. Detailed systematic analyses of copepod taxa were not performed.