Indeterminate Growth of the Fairy Shrimp, Branchinella (Branchinellites) kugenumaensis (Branchiopoda: Anostraca) in an Unpredictable Ephemeral Pool

Hatching response to temperature along a latitudinal gradient by the fairy shrimp Branchinecta lindahli (Crustacea; Branchiopoda; Anostraca) in culture conditions

“…However, all cultures eventually progressed towards a similar ultimate body size and clutch size increased with each successive brood, regardless of temperature. No data were collected on the number of (Prophet, 1963a(Prophet, , 1963b; this study) in contrast to Branchinella kugenumaensis Ishikawa, 1895, which was reported to alternate growth with reproduction, spending energy on either one or the other, in an indeterminate growth strategy (Huang et al, 2010). The latitudinal variation in hatching temperature, time to first clutch and first clutch size demonstrates a pattern of adaptive significance.…”

Spatial Niche Differentiation of Sympatric Branchiopoda in a Highly Unpredictable Ephemeral Pool

“…Without the replenishment of further rainfall, Siangtian Pond usually dries out in less than three weeks primarily due to the porous volcanic soil. Occasionally, replenishing rainfall may arrive in time to refill the drying pool and prolong the inundation period by as much as one month (Huang et al, 2010). Water temperature averaged 21.8 • C (S.D.…”

“…Ephemeral pools are unique aquatic habitats characterized by periodic drought and inundation (Williams, 1985;Brendonck, 1996;Simovich and Hathaway, 1997) and usually forms after snowmelt in spring (Daborn, 1975;Mossin, 1986;Saiah and Perrin, 1990;Mura, 2001;Zarattini and Mura, 2007), seasonal river flooding (Eder and Hödl, 2002), artificial irrigation as in rice paddies (Grygier et al, 2002), or heavy rainfall (Huang et al, 2010). Many ephemeral pools are dominated by branchiopods, including fairy shrimps (Anostraca) and clam shrimps (Laevicaudata and Spinicaudata).…”

“…Many ephemeral pools are dominated by branchiopods, including fairy shrimps (Anostraca) and clam shrimps (Laevicaudata and Spinicaudata). The highly uncertain and unpredictable durations of ephemeral pools impose selective pressures on resident organisms, forming unique adaptive life history strategies (Hildrew, 1985;Hamer and Appleton, 1991;Brendonck, 1996;Brooks, 2000;Bauder, 2005;Huang et al, 2010Huang et al, , 2011.…”

“…Facing the natural stochasticity of ephemeral systems, in which the duration of inundation can vary greatly, the late emerging and slower growing taxa will have a higher risk of insufficient time to reach sexual maturity. If the inundation duration is restricted to only a few weeks, as in the case for Siangtian Pond in Taiwan (Huang et al, 2010(Huang et al, , 2011, where most inundation events last for two weeks, the above-mentioned strategies may not be able to evolve. In these situations, alternative strategies of differentiated spatial distribution (Hamer and Appleton, 1991;Thiéry, 1991) or food resource partitioning, accompanied by different feeding modes (Modlin, 1982), may evolve to reduce the potential competition.…”