The effect of Heterocope predation on zooplankton communities in arctic ponds
The influence of Zieterocope septentrionalis, a predacious Calanoid copepod, on five species of arctic pond zooplankton is investigated. Prey species coexisting with Heterocope are rel-atively invulnerable to predation, but prey species found in Heterocope-free ponds are very susceptible to predatio...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1983
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.571.9837 http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_28/issue_2/0367.pdf |
| Summary: | The influence of Zieterocope septentrionalis, a predacious Calanoid copepod, on five species of arctic pond zooplankton is investigated. Prey species coexisting with Heterocope are rel-atively invulnerable to predation, but prey species found in Heterocope-free ponds are very susceptible to predation. Increasing hunger level of the predator resulted in higher ZZetero-cope feeding rates on Daphnia pulex. In experiments at 5”, lo”, and 15°C Heterocope feel at a greater rate on cladoceran prey at higher temperatures, but there was no effect of temper-ature for copepod prey. Visual observations showed that D. pulex is more vulnerable to Heterocope predation than Daphnia middendorjjjunu because of its smaller adult size and its inability to escape the grasp of ZZeterocope. A field cxperimcnt suggested that D. pulex would probably be excluded from ponds containing Zleterocope, but D. middendorffiunu could increase its population density even in the presence of the predator. The importance of predation to com-munity structure has been intensively studied in freshwater ecosystems. In large bodies of water where vertebrate preda-tors such as planktivorous fish are com-mon, zooplankton communities are com-prised mainly of small species (IIrbGek |
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