The Adaptive Significance of Diel Vertical Migration of Zooplankton

Lampert, Winfried

doi:10.2307/2389671

Cited by 703 publications

(504 citation statements)

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“…The existence of such genetic correlations provides a commonly invoked argument in favor of predator avoidance as the ultimate explanation of DVM (Lampert, 1989). The positive association between the ''physiological'' lifespan in our Daphnia clones and their daytime residence depth is in accordance with the predator-avoidance hypothesis as well as with the classic evolutionary theory of senescence.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Depth-selection behavior and longevity in Daphnia: an evolutionary test for the predation-avoidance hypothesis

2012

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The classic evolutionary theory of senescence predicts that long lifespan evolves under low risk of extrinsic mortality. As lakes present planktonic animals with vertical gradients of mortality risk associated with fish predation, we expected the individual lifespan of Daphnia of the ''hypolymnetic'' clones to be longer than that of ''epilimnetic'' Daphnia. In order to test this prediction, we performed a laboratory study on 14 clones from the D. longispina species complex, taken during the daytime either from epilimnion or hypolimnion of three mesotrophic lakes. ''Epilimnetic'' Daphnia started reproduction earlier, aged faster, and lived shorter than their ''hypolimnetic'' conspecifics. Our results indirectly support the predation-avoidance hypothesis as the ultimate explanation for depth-selection behavior in Daphnia.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Depth-selection behavior and longevity in Daphnia: an evolutionary test for the predation-avoidance hypothesis

2012

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“…However, predator evasion is currently the most favoured hypothesis. The most-common, so-called nocturnal vertical migration brings migrants from typically the bathypelagic or mesopelagic zones into the epipelagic zone at night to feed, and back to depth in daytime to decrease mortality by reducing the risk of detection by visually hunting predators (Zaret and Suffern, 1976;Lampert, 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic insights into the zooplankton dynamics of the eastern Weddell Sea

Cisewski

Strass

2016

Progress in Oceanography

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The success of any efforts to determine the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems depends on understanding in the first instance the natural variations, which contemporarily occur on the interannual and shorter time scales. Here we present results on the environmental controls of zooplankton distribution patterns and behaviour in the eastern Weddell Sea, Southern Ocean. Zooplankton abundance and vertical migration are derived from the mean volume backscattering strength (MVBS) and the vertical velocity measured by moored acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), which were deployed simultaneously at 64°S, 66.5°S and 69°S along the Greenwich Meridian from February, 2005, until March, 2008 While these time series span a period of full three years they resolve hourly changes.A highly persistent behavioural pattern found at all three mooring locations is the synchronous diel vertical migration (DVM) of two distinct groups of zooplankton that migrate between a deep residence depth during daytime and a shallow depth during nighttime. The DVM was closely coupled to the astronomical daylight cycles. However, while the DVM was symmetric around local noon, the annual modulation of the DVM was clearly asymmetric around winter solstice or summer solstice, respectively, at all three mooring sites. DVM at our observation sites persisted throughout winter, even at the highest latitude exposed to the polar night. Since the magnitude as well as the relative rate of change of illumination is minimal at this time, we propose that the ultimate causes of DVM separated from the light-mediated proximal cue that coordinates it. In all three years, a marked change in the migration behaviour occurred in late spring (late October/early November), when DVM ceased. The complete suspension of DVM after early November is possibly caused by the combination of two factors: (1) increased availability of food in the surface mixed layer provided by the phytoplankton spring bloom, and (2) vanishing diurnal enhancement of the threat from visually oriented predators when the illumination is quasi-continuous during the polar and subpolar summer. 3Zooplankton abundance in the water column, estimated as the mean MVBS in the depth range 50 -300 m, was highest end of summer and lowest mid to end winter on the average annual cycle. However, zooplankton abundance varied several-fold between years and between locations. Based on satellite and in situ data of chlorophyll and sea ice as well as on hydrographic measurements, the interannual and spatial variations of zooplankton mean abundance can be explained by differences in the magnitude of the phytoplankton spring bloom, which develops during the seasonal sea ice retreat. Whereas the vernal ice melt appears necessary to stimulate the blooming of phytoplankton, it is not the determinator of the blooms magnitude, its areal extent and duration. A possible explanation for the limitation of the phytoplankton bloom in some years is top-down control. We hypothesize that the phytoplankton spring ...

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“…Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the adaptive significance of DVM (Lampert 1989(Lampert , 1993, such as metabolic and demographic advantages (McLaren 1963(McLaren , 1974, population energy conservation (Geller 1986), optimal resource utilization (Enright 1977), a direct deleterious effect of light (Siebeck 1978, cited in Lampert 1989, and predator avoidance (Zaret & Suffern 1976). The most dominant hypothesis today is that of predator avoidance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%