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Starving with a full gut? Effect of suspended particles on the fitness of Daphnia hyalina

Rellstab, Christian ; Spaak, Piet

In: Hydrobiologia, 2007, vol. 594, no. 1, p. 131-139

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    Title
    • Starving with a full gut? Effect of suspended particles on the fitness of Daphnia hyalina
    Author
    • Rellstab, Christian. Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland
    • Spaak, Piet. Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:317084
    Summary
    Suspended particles are abiotic factors that can affect the abundance of cladocerans such as daphnids. Ultra-oligotrophic Lake Brienz, situated in the front ranges of the Swiss Alps, is dominated by two major inflows that annually transport over 300,000 tons of suspended glacial material into the lake. A laboratory flow-through experiment was performed to test whether these suspended particles have an influence on the fitness of Daphnia hyalina from Lake Brienz, measured as body size, fecundity and juvenile growth rate, especially when they are simultaneously exposed to low food concentrations. Our results show that the concentration of suspended particles present in Lake Brienz does not reduce the fitness of daphnids, even at very low food concentration. In fact, a low concentration of suspended particles increased the fitness. Reduction of fitness could only be observed at a suspended particle concentration of over 25mgl−1, a level that has never been recorded in Lake Brienz