Predation rates of zooplankton in arctic ponds’

• Main Author: Stanley I. Dodson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Kangas; Sullivan; Point Barrow; Zooplankton
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.527.1618; http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_20/issue_3/0426.pdf

Twelve species of arctic freshwater zooplankton were tested for predatory behavior in feeding trials, two species at a time, at several developmental stages. All were herbivorous as nauplii, early copepodids, or neonates. Heterocope septentrionalis and Acanthocyclops vsrnalis were common high-intensity predators in the more mature stages. Daphnia middendorffiana and Polyartemiella haxeni were common passive predators in more mature stages. Cyclops vicinus, Diacyclops languidoides, Eucyclops agilis, Diaptomus aluskaensis, and Diaptomus bacillifer were not predaceous. The predator-prey system in arctic ponds is complex; each predator serves as prey for some other species. From 18 June to 18 July 1973, I took a preliminary look at the higher trophic re-lationships of the crustacean zooplankton of arctic polygon depression ponds, hoping not only to discover which species were predaceous, but to measure feeding rates and sclectivities. The zooplankton of the Point Barrow region is fairly well known. Kangas ( 1972) surveyed the Entomostraca of the area, and Sullivan (1957) surveyed the Protozoa. Life history studies have been made of the cladoceran Daphnia rnid-