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The temperature adaptation of zooplankton is fundamental to determining their distribution and assessing the likelihood of changes in both the distribution of individual species and the community structure that may occur due to climate change. The reciprocal quadratic, a yield-density model, was used to predict the optimal temperature for 21 copepod species from empirical data. The data for the modelling were collected during four surveys in the East China Sea (23°30′~ 33°N, 118°30′~ 128°E) from 1997 to 2000. The present study indicates that the proposed model is suitable for predicting the relationship between temperature and the abundance of copepods. The response curves of the copepod species to temperature were varied. Among the 21 copepod species, eight with an optimal temperature above 25°C were considered tropical species, while the remaining 13 species, with an estimated optimal temperature between 20 and 25°C, were considered subtropical species. Additionally, the dominant copepod species e.g.Euchaeta concinna,Undinula vulgarisandSubeucalanus subcrassus, with intermediate or narrow peak patterns, were generally sensitive or moderately sensitive to temperature changes. Estimating the optimal temperature and thermal sensitivity of copepod species would be helpful in understanding the species-specific response to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]