No abstract

During 1976, midsummer reductions in densities of Daphnia pulicaria and Daphnia galeata mendotae populations occurred in Wintergreen Lake, Michigan. Previous attempts to determine the causes of such declines have indicated correlations between predator populations, the presence of unpalatable algae or high midsummer water temperatures, and the reduction or disappearance of the daphnid populations. In this study, in situ life table experiments were performed to assess the influence of natural food and temperature conditions on population growth. A weekly sampling program showed that D. pulicaria was dielly concentrated, after early summer, at depths between the anaerobic hypolimnion and the warmer epilimnion, consistent with previous information indicating it to be a cold—water species. However, in situ life table data showed that D. pulicaria was capable of surviving in epilimnetic water up to 27°C, although reproduction was greatly reduced for a 6—day period in mid—July. This reduction in reproduction appeared to be the result of an interaction of high temperatures, declining standing crops of small algae and increasing amounts of Anabaena, Ceratium and Volvox. Daphnia galeata mendotae did not show any adverse response to these mid—July algae—temperature conditions. Analysis of predator gut contents suggested that both daphnids were heavily preyed upon by bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus). Shifts in the size structure of the daphnid populations were also consistent with intense size—selective predation by bluegills, as was the tendency for the age distribution of parthenogenic eggs to become skewed to younger eggs as the midsummer decline proceeded. Differences in body size, ephippial production and habitat preferences between the 2 species are also consistent with the hypothesis that planktivory is a strong selective force in their evolution.

Three models of egg hatching in zooplankton populations gave significant differences depending on whether egg mortality was included. The differences were due to the effect of adult mortality on reducing the probability that eggs survive from the time of laying until they are released as live young. Adult mortality results in a population of eggs disproportionately dominated by younger stages, with resulting recruitment rates being lower than expected from development times alone. A technique based on the relative duration of various developmental stages was used to determine the age of eggs from two natural populations during periods of decline. The observed tendency for the age distribution of eggs to be dominated by younger eggs was as expected from models of egg hatching which included mortality but was not as expected from models of declining populations which did not incorporate egg mortality.

The survival time of zooplanktan under conditions of total starvation Is expressed as a function of weightspecific respiration rate and the fraction of initial (pre-starvation) body weight which may be lost prior to death. Data from the literature on these two components of survival time are used to formulate a general expression of survivorship of zooplankton at 20°C as a ftmction of body weight: t=2-95 w°-^^, where t is in days and w is [ig dry weight. Survival time data from the literature on 25 marine and freshwater species are compared to this prediction as are new data on Daphnia ptdex Leydig, D. magna Straus and Simocephalus serrulatus (Koch). The effects of agespecific (non-starvation) mortality are considered; in particular, older individuals of each of these species survive for shorter periods of time than predicted and an interaction between age-specific and starvationinduced mortality is proposed. The effects of total and partial starvation on the size structure of zooplankton communities are discussed.

In laboratory trials, feeding rates of an omnivorous filter-feeding clupeid, Dorosoma cepedianum, increased as a function of particle size, with maximal rates on microspheres, spherical algae, and Zooplankton >40 μm; it did not efficiently feed on filamentous Anabaena flos-aquae. To examine the community level impacts of Dorosoma, we conducted four seasonal outdoor tank experiments of cross-classified design involving two or three densities of Dorosoma and two densities of the zooplanktivorous atherinid fish, Menidia beryllina. We attempted to discriminate between the direct and indirect effects of Dorosoma on phytoplankton by using Menidia to produce indirect effects on phytoplankton by suppressing Zooplankton. Experiments began in November, March, June, and September and lasted for 45–53 d. Dorosoma suppressed most Zooplankton in at least one experiment and enhanced algal standing crops in all four experiments, as indicated by increased algal chlorophyll fluorescence, turbidity, Coulter counts and microscopic algal counts, and decreased Secchi depths. Because in three out of four experiments Menidia suppressed Zooplankton biomass to a greater extent than Dorosoma without enhancing phytoplankton, we reject the hypothesis that the enhancement of phytoplankton by Dorosoma was an indirect effect of Zooplankton biomass suppression.