The influence of predator community composition on photoprotective traits of copepods ...

• Main Authors: Oester, Rebecca, Greenway, Ryan, Moosmann, Marvin, Sommaruga, Ruben, Tartarotti, Barbara, Brodersen, Jakob, Matthews, Blake
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2022
• Subjects: Arctic charr; astaxanthin; carotenoid; Leptodiaptomus minutus; mycosporine-like amino acids; Photoprotection; threespine stickleback; UVR; Arctic; Greenland; Salvelinus alpinus; Copepods
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000544558; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/544558

Trait expression of natural populations often jointly depends on prevailing abiotic environmental conditions and predation risk. Copepods, for example, can vary their expression of compounds that confer protection against ultraviolet radiation (UVR), such as astaxanthin and mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), in relation to predation risk. Despite ample evidence that copepods accumulate less astaxanthin in the presence of predators, little is known about how the community composition of planktivorous fish can affect the overall expression of photoprotective compounds. Here, we investigate how the (co-)occurrence of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) and threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) affects the photoprotective phenotype of the copepod Leptodiaptomus minutus in lake ecosystems in southern Greenland. We found that average astaxanthin and MAA contents were lowest in lakes with stickleback, but we found no evidence that these photoprotective compounds were affected by the presence of charr. ... : Ecology and Evolution, 12 (4) ...