Predation risk and the structure of freshwater zooplankton communities

Summary Many predators inflict substantial mortality on their prey. The prey respond to these selective pressures with changes in their spatial and temporal overlap with the predator (density risk responses), or with changes in their vulnerability to the predator (prey vulnerability responses). Here we develop a simple predation model that permits quantification of the basic response types of the prey in nature. We then test the hypothesis that prey response will be proportional to the intensity of the predation mortality relative to all other sources of mortality and decreased natality acting on the prey. A significant regression relationship is obtained for the prey vulnerability response but not for any of the density risk responses. The individual response values and regression statistics are used to interpret the relative importance of the different response types and to assess the predator's influence on prey community structure.Supported by Lehigh University Environmental Studies Center     

Biotic relations affecting species structure in zooplankton communities

Mathematical modelling and laboratory experiments were used to study how exploitative competition and predation influence the species structure in cladoceran community. For five species of Cladocera (Sida crystallina, Daphnia magna, Simocephalus vetulus, Daphnia longispina, and Diaphanosoma brachyurum), representing a gradient of body size, population characteristics were described as functions of food concentration. Abundance dynamics were simulated in mixed species cultures and invasion experiments under different levels of food supply corresponding to oligo-, meso-, and eutrophic conditions. Separate simulations were also run including and excluding (fish) predation. The competitive ability of each species was estimated as the values of the population equilibrium food concentration. Simulation results showed that for the no-predator scenario, increases in the level of food supply promoted species coexistence while under lower food concentrations only one species remained at the end of the simulation runs. When predation was allowed, the number of species that coexisted at the end of the simulations increased up to four species, indicating that predator pressure facilitated species coexistence because it shortened periods of food depletion. Simulation results were verified in laboratory experiments which suggested that population equilibrium food concentration can be used as an estimate of competitive ability. Finally, species structure and relative abundance in Lake Naroch (Belarus) during the summer of 2004 was found to be consistent with our results from computer simulation and laboratory experiments with regard to competition and predation impacts on zooplankton community. Handling editor: S. I. Dodson     

Evidence that fish structure the zooplankton communities of turbid lakes and reservoirs

1. Visually foraging fish typically exclude large zooplankton from clear‐water lakes and reservoirs. Do fish have the same effect in turbid waters, or does turbidity provide a refuge from visual predation? 2. To test the hypothesis that fish exclude large zooplankton species from turbid sites, I searched for populations of medium or large Daphnia species in turbid, fish‐containing reservoirs of south‐central Oklahoma and north‐central Texas, U.S.A., and surveyed the literature for accounts of Daphnia species in turbid habitats worldwide. 3. Only small Daphnia species and the exuberantly spined Daphnia lumholtzi were detected in the turbid reservoirs. The Daphnia species in the reservoirs are smaller than other Daphnia species that occur in the area but were not detected. An extensive survey of the literature suggests that large Daphnia may be found in the lakes of extreme turbidity [Secchi disk depth (SD) < 0.2 m] but that only small and spiny Daphnia are likely to occur in more typical turbid locations (1.0 m > SD > 0.2 m) unless some additional factor reduces the influence of fish predation in such sites. 4. The field samples from Texas and Oklahoma together with the literature review suggest that the effect of visually foraging planktivorous fish on the size structure of turbid‐water zooplankton communities may often be as strong or even stronger than the effect of fish on clear‐water zooplankton communities.     

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analyses of temporal variation in the structure of limnetic zooplankton communities

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis was used to graphically summarize and analyze seasonal changes in the structure of limnetic zooplankton communities in Blelham Tarn, English Lake District and two large experimental enclosures (tubes A and B) therein. Species abundances in weekly samples taken from June–December, 1976 from the three sites were ordinated. Paths through species space describing temporal changes in community structure indicated that the tube B community oscillated around some average composition and was dominated by small zooplankters whereas those from tube A and the tarn changed quite distinctly through the season and had higher predator densities. Examination of other characteristics of the sites indicated that the observed differences in seasonal cycles could be related to variations in the intensity of predation, the quality of food for herbivorous zooplankters and the dynamics of nutrient input. The importance of considering time variation in lake properties, particularly in assessing lake responses to stress and in typing lakes for experimentation or management, is emphasized.     

The organization of zooplankton epibiont communities

Recent findings suggest that a diverse set of interactions exists between crustacean zooplankton and the algae, protozoans and metazoans that live attached to them. The frequent molting of the crustacean exoskeleton keeps these epibiont populations in a state of constant renewal and makes this epibiont community an ideal experimental system for examining the organization of communities whose populations are distributed among ephemeral habitat patches.     

The impact of zooplankton size structure on phosphorus cycling in field enclosures

Plastic bag field enclosures (1570 1) were used to investigate the relationship between zooplankton size distributions and the turnover rate of pelagic phosphorus. Water within the enclosures was filtered to simulate either low (200 µm mesh net) or high (80 µm) planktivory. The bags were then spiked with radiolabelled phosphorus and sampled 7 times during the following 24 h period. Zooplankton communities dominated by smaller size classes cycled more phosphorus than those composed of larger species. These experiments reveal that higher trophic level interactions, such as size selective predation, may have a significant impact upon nutrient regeneration rates and, hence, primary production.     

Fishing degrades size structure of coral reef fish communities

Fishing pressure on coral reef ecosystems has been frequently linked to reductions of large fishes and reef fish biomass. Associated impacts on overall community structure are, however, less clear. In size‐structured aquatic ecosystems, fishing impacts are commonly quantified using size spectra, which describe the distribution of individual body sizes within a community. We examined the size spectra and biomass of coral reef fish communities at 38 US‐affiliated Pacific islands that ranged in human presence from near pristine to human population centers. Size spectra ‘steepened’ steadily with increasing human population and proximity to market due to a reduction in the relative biomass of large fishes and an increase in the dominance of small fishes. Reef fish biomass was substantially lower on inhabited islands than uninhabited ones, even at inhabited islands with the lowest levels of human presence. We found that on populated islands size spectra exponents decreased (analogous to size spectra steepening) linearly with declining biomass, whereas on uninhabited islands there was no relationship. Size spectra were steeper in regions of low sea surface temperature but were insensitive to variation in other environmental and geomorphic covariates. In contrast, reef fish biomass was highly sensitive to oceanographic conditions, being influenced by both oceanic productivity and sea surface temperature. Our results suggest that community size structure may be a more robust indicator than fish biomass to increasing human presence and that size spectra are reliable indicators of exploitation impacts across regions of different fish community compositions, environmental drivers, and fisheries types. Size‐based approaches that link directly to functional properties of fish communities, and are relatively insensitive to abiotic variation across biogeographic regions, offer great potential for developing our understanding of fishing impacts in coral reef ecosystems.     

飞云江口附近海域浮游动物群落特征

根据2010—2011年在飞云江附近海域(27°46'N—27°75'N,120°66'E—121°01'E)秋、冬、春3个季节的调查资料,分析了浮游动物的种类组成及多样性分布、总丰度的平面分布和季节变化及其与水团变化的关系。结果表明:飞云江口附近水域秋、冬、春三季共鉴定出浮游动物60种,分属于11大类;秋季检出浮游动物9大类42种,冬季检出5大类20种,春季检出8大类34种;调查水域浮游动物丰度在秋、冬之间和冬、春之间有较大变化,秋、冬、春三季浮游动物平均丰度分别为221.69、19.52和137.50 ind·m-3;秋、冬、春季种类数近岸较少,外海较多;三季中,秋季浮游动物Shannon多样性指数最高,高值区位于调查水域的东南部,其次为春季,最高值出现在飞云江口外海域,冬季为三季最低,最高值出现在调查水域北侧岛群之间;中华哲水蚤(Calanus sinicus)是冬、春季影响总丰度变化最主要的种类,秋季总丰度变化主要受针刺拟哲水蚤(Paracalanus aculeatus)和百陶箭虫(Sagitta bedoti)影响;各水团随季节变化此消彼长共同作用于研究水域,对该水域浮游动物数量分布和群落组成产生相应的影响。     

The structure of carrion fly communities: the size and the type of carrion

Species composition and abundance relations of flies attracted to and bred from different sizes (20-100 g) and types of carrion (small mammal, cow liver, bird, and fish) were studied experimentally in natural breeding conditions in South Finland. Large pieces of carrion did not attract significantly more individuals or species than did small ones, but there was a positive correlation between size of carrion and numbers of flies bred, apparently because of competition. Altogether 10 species emerged from 50 cultures, and on average 2.78 ± 1.22 (SD) species emerged from one culture. The number of co-occurrences among the emerging flies indicated random colonization. Variation in species composition between like pieces of carrion was not less than variation between carcasses of different size or type; hence, size and type of carrion are not important determinants of community structure within the size and type ranges used.
Lucilia illustris (Meig.) was the predominant species, comprising 50% of flies trapped and 85% of flies bred. The difference indicates changing species composition in the community. Two sets of cultures were left open for egg-laying for 2 and 7 d. Competition was less Intensive in the former cultures, which produced 4.0 individuals per gram of carrion, contrasting with only 1.4 individuals per gram in the latter cultures. Competition delayed development in all species, but least in L. illustris , which suggests that fast developing species are at a competitive advantage. In agreement with this, abundance was positively correlated with the rate of development.     

Live sieving of freshwater zooplankton: a technique for monitoring community size structure

A simple method is described for a quick determination of thesize structure of zooplankton communities. This is based onsieving of a live sample, using one or two sieves of known meshsize, and determining the dry weight of the size fractions.Size separation by live sieving is validated statistically onDaphnia galeata, a common planktonic cladoceran, by comparingsize-sieved fractions against direct microscopic measurementsof individuals. A non-linear model was used for assessment ofsieving statistics. The sieving technique facilitates the gatheringof size-structured biomass data for zooplankton for routinemonitoring or long-term studies.     

Predation and priority effects in experimental zooplankton communities

During colonization of new habitats, the sequence of arrival among species is in many cases determined by chance. Priority effects imply that differences in arrival time may lead to long-lasting differences in species dominance. To evaluate the importance of priority effects, we performed a community assembly experiment, manipulating the inoculation order of three large cladoceran zooplankton species. The inoculation treatments were crossed with a predation treatment to test whether the presence of a predator (larvae of the phantom midge Chaoborus ) results in changes in the strength of species sorting and priority effects. Our results clearly demonstrate priority effects, but also that the presence of a predator impacts both community assembly and the strength of priority effects. In the predation-free treatments, communities were dominated by either Daphnia magna or Daphnia obtusa , depending on the species arrival sequence. Whenever D. obtusa was inoculated after D. magna , the species displayed negative growth. In the presence of Chaoborus predation, the communities were generally dominated by the third species, Simocephalus vetulus . Here, the growth of D. magna was negative when the species was inoculated as second or third. Overall, our results underscore the importance of both priority effects and species sorting during community assembly.     

Land-use intensification systematically alters the size structure of aquatic communities in the Neotropics

Land-use and land-cover transitions can affect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in a myriad of ways, including how energy is transferred within food-webs. Size spectra (i.e. relationships between body size and biomass or abundance) provide a means to assess how food-webs respond to environmental stressors by depicting how energy is transferred from small to larger organisms. Here, we investigated changes in the size spectrum of aquatic macroinvertebrates along a broad land-use intensification gradient (from Atlantic Forest to mechanized agriculture) in 30 Brazilian streams. We expected to find a steeper size spectrum slope and lower total biomass in more disturbed streams due to higher energetic expenditure in physiologically stressful conditions, which has a disproportionate impact on large individuals. As expected, we found that more disturbed streams had fewer small organisms than pristine forest streams, but, surprisingly, they had shallower size spectrum slopes, which indicates that energy might be transferred more efficiently in disturbed streams. Disturbed streams were also less taxonomically diverse, suggesting that the potentially higher energy transfer in these webs might be channelled via a few efficient trophic links. However, because total biomass was higher in pristine streams, these sites still supported a greater number of larger organisms and longer food chains (i.e. larger size range). Our results indicate that land-use intensification decreases ecosystem stability and enhances vulnerability to population extinctions by reducing the possible energetic pathways while enhancing efficiency between the remaining food-web linkages. Our study represents a step forward in understanding how land-use intensification affects trophic interactions and ecosystem functioning in aquatic systems.     

The biodiversity of zooplankton communities of the west arctic seas

Based on the data from ten cruises that were carried out in 2001–2009, the structure of zooplankton communities was assessed in the Western Arctic seas using the estimated biodiversity indices. The greatest number of taxa was revealed in the south, southeast, and north of the Barents Sea. The average number of taxa in the sample was at a maximum off the coast of the Svalbard Archipelago. The greatest value of the Shannon index was registered within the Murmansk coastal water mass (Barents Sea) and Svalbard Archipelago. The median values of the evenness of the abundance of fauna were 0.5–0.6. A trend to a reduction of the biodiversity parameters of zooplankton communities with increasing square of water area water area was found. An inverse correlation between the Shannon and evenness indices for the total zooplankton abundance was revealed.     

Assembly of zooplankton communities in newly created ponds

1. The creation or severe disturbance of habitat patches is generally followed by a phase of community (re)assembly. After such an event, the trajectory of community assembly in habitat patches may be highly variable because of stochasticity during the dispersal and colonization process. Conversely, assembly patterns may also be deterministic if communities are shaped by prevalent environmental conditions in the habitat patches (species sorting), or by systematic differences in the dispersal capacities of species. 2. In this study, we investigated the pattern of community assembly of zooplankton species in 25 newly created ponds at 13 different sites in Flanders (Belgium). Over a period of three consecutive years, we assessed at what rate and with what frequency species of the regional species pool colonized the newly created ponds. We also studied the development of community structure over time and tested whether the dynamics were consistent across different ponds at the different locations. In addition, we characterized the dynamics of metacommunity features, such as alpha, beta and gamma diversity in clusters of ponds. 3. Even within the first year after their creation, the new ponds were rapidly colonized by a small subset of species from the regional species pool (Daphnia obtusa, Chydorus sphaericus and Simocephalus vetulus). These species dominated the cladoceran assemblages during the subsequent years. Other species in the regional species pools were only sporadically able to colonize ponds. 4. During the entire study period, we observed no significant shifts in species lists or in the occurrences of species among years. The low incidence of the majority of species may be the result of dispersal limitation or the failure of immigrants to establish due to priority effects exerted by the first colonizers. There was, nevertheless, a consistent change in the relative abundance of species, which was most probably mediated by differences in the hatching time among species influencing species composition in the first year. 5. In contrast to expectations, we observed no increase in average alpha diversity (local species richness) and gamma diversity (total richness of entire pond clusters) during the course of the study period. Beta diversity was relatively low from the beginning and remained constant throughout the study period. These deterministic patterns can mainly be attributed to the dominance of the three first colonizing species and the low success rate of other species in colonizing the ponds.     

Synchronization of the Cell Cycle of Tetrahymena by Starvation and Refeeding*

SYNOPSIS The present report describes a simple and useful method for synchronizing mass cultures of the ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis. The method employs a nutritional approach which involves starvation of the cells in a non-nutrient phosphate buffer followed by refeeding with an enriched nutritional growth medium. It takes 240 minutes after refeeding before the first cells start to divide. Radioautographic and DNA determinations taken together show that starved cells are stalled in the GI nuclear DNA condition and that essentially all of the cells replicate their DNA prior to their first cell division.     

杭州湾内外海域秋季浮游动物群落的比较

本文比较了杭州湾湾外海域(122.10°-122.58° E, 30.54°-30.93° N)和湾内不同海域(北岸东侧: 121.67°- 121.87° E, 30.68°-30.83° N; 南岸东侧: 121.60°-121.85° E, 29.95°-30.24° N; 北岸西侧: 121.31°-121.56° E, 30.58°- 30.77° N)秋季浮游动物的群落组成、累积优势度曲线以及多样性指数(H')等群落结构特征, 并进行了差异性分析。结果表明: 湾外海域的群落组成与湾内海域的3个群落之间均有较大的差异。湾外海域的群落I是以中华假磷虾(Pseudeuphausia sinica)等近海种、背针胸刺水蚤(Centropages dorsispinatus)等沿岸低盐种为主, 其次是外海种。湾内南岸东侧海域的群落II主要以左突唇角水蚤(Labidocera sinilobata)等沿岸低盐种为主, 近海种次之。湾内北岸东侧海域的群落III是以真刺唇角水蚤(Labidocera euchaeta)等沿岸低盐种、虫肢歪水蚤(Tortanus vermiculus)等河口半咸水种组成的混合群落。湾内北岸西侧海域群落IV是以虫肢歪水蚤为代表的河口半咸水种为主的群落。总的说来, 这一水域向西和向北方向出现更低盐度适应性的群落。从累积优势度曲线来看, 湾外海域群落I与湾内北岸东侧群落III的累积优势度上升趋势均相对平缓, 但群落III的初始累积优势度略高于群落I; 而与群落I相比, 湾内南岸东侧的群落II与北岸西侧的群落IV的初始累积优势度均很高。湾外海域群落I的初始累积优势度较低, 显示出群落I的优势种较多, 而单一优势种优势度低于湾内3个群落。方差分析结果表明: 湾外海域的浮游动物多样性指数与湾内3个海域均有极显著差异(P < 0.01), 而湾内各海域之间均无显著性差异(P > 0.05)。说明湾外浮游动物群落的多样性高于湾内海域。湾内外海域浮游动物群落特征之间有较大差异, 其主要原因是影响各自群落的主导水团明显不同。     

Starvation and Encystment of a Soil Amoeba Hartmannella castellanii*

SYNOPSIS. The behavior of the amoeba H. castellanii was investigated in various carbon and nitrogen deficient media with a view to developing a satisfactory replacement medium for the study of encystment and excystment. Media which had been devised for other soil amoebae did not cause H. castellanii to encyst. In these media there was an efflux of material from the cells which was independent of osmolarity but which was minimized by the addition of magnesium. Maximal encystment occurred in a medium containing magnesium chloride alone. The cysts produced in the magnesium chloride replacement medium are viable and readily excyst when resuspended in the growth medium. The cysts contain cellulose, which is not present in the vegetative amoebae, and differ from the amoebae in their greater resistance to induced lysis and mechanical injury.     

Responses of zooplankton body size and community trophic structure to temperature change in a subtropical reservoir

Understanding the effects of global warming on trait variation and trophic structure is a crucial challenge in the 21st century. However, there is a lack of general patterns that can be used to predict trait variation and community trophic structure under the ongoing environmental change. We investigated the responses of body size and community trophic structure of zooplankton to climate related factors (e.g., temperature). Isotopic niche breadth was applied to investigate the community trophic structure across a 1‐year study from a subtropical reservoir (Tingxi Reservoir) in southeastern China. Body size and community isotopic niche breadth of zooplankton were larger during water mixing than stratification periods and correlated significantly with water temperature change along the time series. The contributions of intra‐ and intertaxonomic components to body size and community trophic structure variation showed significant relationships with the temperature change going from the mixing to stratification periods. Water temperature imposed direct effect on body size, while direct and indirect effect on the community trophic structure of zooplankton occurred through trophic redundancy along time series. Water temperature and community properties (e.g., body size, trophic redundancy, or trophic interaction) showed complex interactions and integrated to influence community trophic structure of zooplankton. Our results can expand the knowledge of how elevated temperature will alter individual trait and community trophic structure under future climate change.