A broad range of studies have been carried out on this species, including: its ecology, physiology, phylogeography, metapopulation genetics, development and reproductive behaviour.

[3] This species of harpacticoid copepod is found in high shore splash pools on coastlines ranging from Portugal in the south to Iceland and Nova Scotia in the north.

[4] These splash pools occur several metres above the high tide mark, isolated from the main coastal water as a microenvironment that can vary dramatically in chemical factors such as salinity, temperature and oxygen levels over relatively short temporal scales.

T. brevicornis has the ability to survive these variable environmental conditions (factors that limit predators such as fish to lower pools in the intertidal zone) and as a result is known as a euryhaline osmoconformer.

[5] The orange pigment Astaxanthin is synthesised by the organism as an aid against UVAR and UVBR radiation from the sun, as rock pools can be quite exposed to desiccation.

The copepod's diet of phytoplankton who are rich in Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids (HUFAs) allow them to synthesise this protective protein, granting them tolerance to radiation year-round.

[10][11] This extremely restricted dispersal has perplexed researchers, as phylogeographical studies have shown that despite this, distant relatives of T. brevicornis were capable of occasional long distance transport, colonising large geographic areas within the last 12 to 15 thousand years.

Although classed as a benthic copepod, this particular species of Tigriopus is surprisingly motile, and has been noted to spend prolonged amounts of time in the water column of experimental mesocosms.

An interesting trait of some nauplii is to beat their appendages while being stationary, which results in the creation of a strong feeding current that is about 10 times faster than the average translation speed of the nauplius.

Speculation concerning the females' ability to recognise their own young and therefore not eat them is no longer supported, as more recent studies have indicated that this kin recognition does not exist within the genus Tigriopus.

The copepod is a product, reared in huge hundred litre tanks, fed with nearby-cultured micro algae and the nauplii would be constantly filtered out, leaving the adults and copepodites (teenagers) inside the mass culture vessels.