Diel Vertical Migration (DVM) is a well-studied phenomenon, widespread in the temperate and tropical oceans, and previously understood to be the most significant contributor to the active export of carbon as a result of zooplankton migration. The most common form is the nocturnal DVM, a night-time ascent to the upper pelagic and a daytime descent to deeper waters. A relatively unique variation of this form is the twilight DVM, where the ascent happens during dusk and the descent around midnight (i.e., midnight sinking).
While DVM occurs on a daily basis, overwintering diapause (hibernation) occurs on an annual time-scale and enables zooplankton species, particularly Calanus spp., to adapt to seasonal variation in primary productivity in specific ocean basins. Individuals enter diapause and migrate deeper in the water column to overwinter below the thermocline. During diapause they survive on stored lipid reserves that are generated at the end of their time at the surface when nutrients are widely available. The seasonal end of diapause must be closely timed with the beginning of the spring phytoplankton bloom to enable acquisition of food to permit proper egg development and hatching. If the timing is disrupted, eggs that are hatched during diapause will have limited growth time and a lower likelihood of surviving overwintering, as thus is an example of match-mismatch hypothesis. Calanus spp. in ocean basins with shorter growth seasons will be increasingly sensitive to the timing of the spring bloom, such as polar regions.
In the Arctic and Antarctic environments, the productive season is typically short and certain copepods species vertically migrate during overwintering diapause. During the productive seasons of spring and summer, younger developmental stages of these copepods usually thrive in food-rich, warmer, near-surface waters, and they rapidly develop and grow. During late summer and fall, grazing pressure, nutrient limitation, and annual variations of irradiance combine to limit the pelagic primary production. Consequently, the food supply fades toward fall, and overwintering diapause initiates. These copepods migrate to deeper waters with accumulated lipid reserves for overwintering. The overwintering diapause stages remain in deeper waters with limited physical and physiological activity and ascend back to the near-surface waters and complete the life cycle at the onset of the following productive season.