Increased phototaxis in the field leads to enhanced diel vertical migration

Ringelberg, J.; Flik, Ben J. G.

doi:10.4319/lo.1994.39.8.1855

Cited by 40 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…At dawn and dusk, light intensity changes rapidly and correlations exist between the measured descent and ascent velocities of zooplankton and the rate of the relative increases and decreases in light intensity, respectively (Ringelberg & Flik, 1994). Lunar periodicity may also act to modify the effect of change of light intensity on DVM.…”

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confidence: 98%

Diel Vertical Migration of zooplankton in a eutrophic bay of Lake Victoria

2009

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We studied the Diel Vertical Migration (DVM) of several zooplankton taxa and an important zooplanktivore Rastrineobola argentea in a eutrophic bay of Lake Victoria for a total of 3 months during wet and dry seasons. Zooplankton were sampled twice a month at full moon and new moon. The zooplankton community of this lake was numerically dominated by cyclopoid copepods ([80%) of which 80% were juveniles. The composition of zooplankton was not significantly different (P [ 0.05) for the different sampling months (November 2000, March 2001 and July 2001), but total zooplankton abundance was significantly lower (P \ 0.05) in July (dry season) than during March or November (wet seasons). DVM behaviour was observed in some of the zooplankton groups including Tropocyclops spp., Thermocyclops spp., Thermodiaptomus galeboides and Diaphanosoma excisum. In these groups, we also observed that they were significantly (P \ 0.05) more abundant at full moon than at new moon in some months, a pattern not seen in non-DVM groups. The amplitude of migration tended to be higher at new moon than full moon for all DVM zooplankton but not significantly so (P [ 0.05). The zooplanktivore R. argentea exhibits typical DVM behaviour, perhaps to avoid visual predation itself, but it also increases the predation pressure on zooplankton in deeper waters. Feeding times for R. argentea peak just after dusk and dawn. For the copepod calanoid T. galeboides, there was a strong relationship (P \ 0.05) between the amplitude of migration and midday (12:00) water transparency, suggesting that these zooplankton may have descended deeper on days with higher water transparency. In the absence of temperature and food gradients but with predation pressure from a migrating zooplanktivore, the depth of descent of zooplankton may be well associated with water transparency.

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confidence: 98%

Diel Vertical Migration of zooplankton in a eutrophic bay of Lake Victoria

2009

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“…Phototaxis strongly affects the ecology of aquatic ecosystems, contributing to diel vertical migration of phytoplankton, one of the most dramatic migratory phenomena on Earth and the largest in terms of biomass (14). Diel vertical migration is crucial for the survival and proliferation of plankton (13,15,16), may affect the structuring of algal blooms (17), and allows plankton to escape from predation by filter-feeding organisms. Because phytoplankton are responsible for one-half of the global photosynthetic activity (18,19) and are the basis of marine and freshwater food webs (20), their behavior and productivity have strong implications for ocean biogeochemistry, carbon cycling, and trophic dynamics (21,22).…”

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Generalized receptor law governs phototaxis in the phytoplankton Euglena gracilis

Giometto

Altermatt

Maritan

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Phototaxis, the process through which motile organisms direct their swimming toward or away from light, is implicated in key ecological phenomena (including algal blooms and diel vertical migration) that shape the distribution, diversity, and productivity of phytoplankton and thus energy transfer to higher trophic levels in aquatic ecosystems. Phototaxis also finds important applications in biofuel reactors and microbiopropellers and is argued to serve as a benchmark for the study of biological invasions in heterogeneous environments owing to the ease of generating stochastic light fields. Despite its ecological and technological relevance, an experimentally tested, general theoretical model of phototaxis seems unavailable to date. Here, we present accurate measurements of the behavior of the alga Euglena gracilis when exposed to controlled light fields. Analysis of E. gracilis' phototactic accumulation dynamics over a broad range of light intensities proves that the classic Keller-Segel mathematical framework for taxis provides an accurate description of both positive and negative phototaxis only when phototactic sensitivity is modeled by a generalized "receptor law," a specific nonlinear response function to light intensity that drives algae toward beneficial light conditions and away from harmful ones. The proposed phototactic model captures the temporal dynamics of both cells' accumulation toward light sources and their dispersion upon light cessation. The model could thus be of use in integrating models of vertical phytoplankton migrations in marine and freshwater ecosystems, and in the design of bioreactors.phototactic potential | photoresponse | sensory system | photoaccumulation | microbial motility M icroorganisms possess a variety of sensory systems to acquire information about their environment (1), including the availability of resources, the presence of predators, and the local light conditions (2). For any sensory system, the system's response function determines the organism's capability to process the available information and turn it into a behavioral response. Such a response function is shaped by the natural environment and its fluctuations (3-5) and affects the search strategy [be it mate search, food search, etc. (6, 7)] and the swimming behavior of microorganisms (8). Gradient sensing is particularly important in marine and freshwater ecosystems, where the distribution of resources is highly heterogeneous (9, 10) and the ability to move toward resource hot spots can provide a strong selective advantage to motile organisms over nonmotile ones (2, 5). Spatiotemporal patterns of light underwater contribute to the heterogeneity of the aquatic environment. Because light is a major carrier of energy and information in the water column (11), phototaxis is a widespread case of directed gradient-driven locomotion (12, 13), found in many species of phytoplankton and zooplankton. Phototaxis strongly affects the ecology of aquatic ecosystems, contributing to diel vertical migration of phytoplankton, on...

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“…The ''light preferendum hypothesis'' assumed individuals to migrate vertically in order to keep ambient light intensity constant (staying in the same isolume, Richards et al, 1996) and was used to simulate the spatiotemporal progression of DVM. However, extensive field observations (Ringelberg and Flik, 1994;Ringelberg et al, 1991) and detailed laboratory experiments (van Gool, 1997;van Gool and Ringelberg, 1997) unambiguously elaborated that DVM of Daphnia is not directly controlled by light intensity but by the relative change in light intensity (RLC, see Ringelberg, 1999). A second proximate factor is the presence of infochemicals released by fish (kairomones), which are obligatory for inducing a DVM in Daphnia (Dodson, 1988;Loose, 1993a, b) and manifest DVM as an inducible defence mechanism against fish predation (Harvell, 1990).…”

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confidence: 97%

Individual-based simulation of diel vertical migration of Daphnia: A synthesis of proximate and ultimate factors

Rinke¹,

Petzoldt²

2008

Limnologica

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Diel vertical migration (DVM) of Daphnia is a well-studied inducible defence mechanism against predation by fish. Our study is anchored in constructing an individual-based model of DVM in order to bring established knowledge about essential key processes into a synthesis. For that purpose, we combined information about both proximate and ultimate factors of DVM with the intention to unify published results from these historically separated lines of research. The model consists of three submodels: (i) movements, (ii) growth and reproduction, and (iii) mortality. The submodel ''movements'' includes algorithms for light-dependent migration behaviour of Daphnia that were able to reproduce spatiotemporal distribution patterns of DVM. By means of scenario analyses, we tested the predator avoidance hypothesis by comparing population growth rates of migrating and non-migrating populations over a range of fish biomasses in the habitat. This enabled us to quantify the adaptive value of DVM under various environmental settings. Simulation results supported the predator avoidance hypothesis and showed a particularly high adaptive value of DVM if fish predation is intense. However, since DVM is associated with costs, a certain predation pressure in the habitat has to be prevailing in order to turn DVM into an adaptive strategy. Otherwise, if fish predation is weak, migrating populations realize lower population growth rates than non-migrating populations. In a second scenario, we tested the influence of vertical gradients of temperature and food on the adaptive value of DVM. We found a great potential to maximize the adaptive value of DVM if daphnids are able to modify their migration amplitude in dependence of the vertical structure of their habitat. For example, a deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) can be a strong attractor for Daphnia to modify the migration amplitude in such a way that the daytime depth corresponds to the depth of the DCM. However, flexibility of the migration amplitude is only advantageous if the predation intensity is moderate -if predation is intense, only maximum migration amplitudes maximize fitness.

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Increased phototaxis in the field leads to enhanced diel vertical migration

Cited by 40 publications

References 11 publications

Diel Vertical Migration of zooplankton in a eutrophic bay of Lake Victoria

Diel Vertical Migration of zooplankton in a eutrophic bay of Lake Victoria

Generalized receptor law governs phototaxis in the phytoplankton Euglena gracilis

Individual-based simulation of diel vertical migration of Daphnia: A synthesis of proximate and ultimate factors

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