Modelling the sensitivity of life history traits to climate change in a temporary pool crustacean

Abstract

Temporary pool inhabitants face altered inundation regimes under climate change. While their exposure to these changes has received considerable attention, few studies have investigated their sensitivity or adaptability. Here, we use zooplankton as a model to explore how decreasing hydroperiods affect extinction risks and assess whether changes in life history traits could promote persistence. For this, we construct a three-stage matrix population model parameterised with realistic life-history values for the fairy shrimp Branchipodopsis wolfi from pools with varying hydroperiods. Our results suggest that extinction risks increase drastically once the median hydroperiod drops below a critical threshold. Although changes in life-history parameters could potentially compensate for this risk, the relative importance of each trait for population growth depends on the median hydroperiod. For example, survival of dormant eggs seemed to be most important when hydroperiods were short while the survival of freshly laid eggs and adult individuals were more important in longer-lived pools. Overall, this study demonstrates that zooplankton species are sensitive to climate change and that the adaptive capacity of organisms from temporary pools with dissimilar hydrology hinges on selection of different life history traits.

Spatial scaling of population synchrony in marine fish depends on their life history

“…Recent publications have predicted that climate change and associated ecological processes (e.g. increased competition or predation) will change population life histories and spatial distributions (Swain et al 2015;Pinceel et al 2016;Lancaster et al 2017). In addition, climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances that alter population cycles, such as harvesting, have been shown to influence the spatial synchrony of populations, with uncertain consequences for their future (Bjørnstad 2000;Vasseur & Fox 2009;Defriez et al 2016;Shestakova et al 2016).…”

Climate change jeopardizes the persistence of freshwater zooplankton by reducing both habitat suitability and demographic resilience

“…The propagule bank spreads recruitment over multiple potential growing seasons through long term dormancy and delayed development, thereby buffering populations against unfavorable growing seasons and demographic catastrophes [ 10 , 11 ]. Both empirical and modelling studies demonstrate that propagule banks are crucial for the resilience of populations, especially when growing seasons are often unsuitable for successful reproduction [ 7 , 9 , 12 ].…”

“…Although it has been suggested that propagule banks will be vital for organisms such as freshwater zooplankton to maintain positive long term population growth in the face of climate change [ 12 , 18 , 19 ], little research exists on the possible effects of climate change on propagule banks. For instance, it is mostly unknown whether propagule survival would be affected by realistic changes in current temperatures under climate change.…”

“…Here, we used an animal with dormant propagules as a model system and performed a long term experiment to measure the impact of increased temperature on the survival and hatching of propagules. We then fed these measured life-history parameters into a recently developed matrix population model [ 12 ] and examined how they affect the long term persistence of populations. As model organism, we used fairy shrimps (Crustacea, Branchiopoda, Anostraca), which are common inhabitants of temporary aquatic habitats on all continents.…”

Squeezing out the last egg—annual fish increase reproductive efforts in response to a predation threat

“…Delayed metamorphosis as a side effect of reduced foraging rates in response to a predation threat observed in Rana tadpoles is no longer observed when complemented with a risk of desiccation (Laurila & Kujasalo, 1999), indicating that the latter stressor has priority. Furthermore, modeling of population growth rates of crustaceans from temporary pools, which have a similar life-cycle to that of Nothobranchius killifish, shows that any delay in maturation has strong negative effects on long-term demographics (Pinceel, Vanschoenwinkel, Brendonck, & Buschke, 2016) (Pinceel et al, 2016).…”