| Abstract: | Field studies on a Daphnia galeata population in the mesotrophic man-made lake Saidenbach show that the fecundity of the animals depends on individual size, water temperature and the food supply (absolute quantity, specific food supply, food quality). These different factors are subsumed in the ingestion rate (rate of individual food intake per unit time), which is of an integrative character. The fecundity plotted versus ingestion rate yields a graph with the shape of a saturation curve. Attention is drawn to the consequences in terms of variation in population size. |
