Cyclosalpa bakeri is a salp most commonly found in tropical Indo-Pacific waters, but can range as far north as Alaska in low numbers during spring and high numbers during summer (Doubleday et al. 2016). They are found in either a barrel-shaped solitary form or a circular colonial form. These sequential hermaphrodites have a body size that ranges from 23-55mm as an aggregate zooid and up to 27-82mm as a solitary zooid (Sunwoo et al. 2012). When in a solitary form, the salp will reproduce through asexual reproduction. In a colonial form, the females of one aggregate produce eggs that are fertilized by the sperm of a different aggregate. In this way, C. bakeri exhibits alternation of generations. This organism experiences direct development and there is no larval stage.Like other salps, C. bakeri, is a filter feeder and eats plankton in the water column as it moves forward by jet propulsion.
Local ecology: Using CalCOFI data from 1951-2002, it was determined that when C. bakeri was found in the California Current system, it would appear most abundantly during cool phases. These cool-phase salps included other species such as Salpa maxima, Pegea socia and Cyclosalpa affinis. During warm phases they were almost completely absent from waters in Southern California (Lavaniegos & Ohman 2003).
