Immediate and delayed life-history responses of Daphnia ambigua to conspecific cues

Studies of planktonic organisms have shown that various life-history traits, and consequently population growth rate, can be affected by chemical cues released by high densities of conspecifics. In this work we test for potential delays in population responses to conspecific cues in the cladoceran D...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of plankton research 2008-10, Vol.30 (10), p.1117-1122
Main Authors: Carvajal-Salamanca, J. L., Aránguiz-Acuña, A., Ramos-Jiliberto, R., Zúñiga, L. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Chemical stimuli
Cladocera
Conspecifics
Daphnia ambigua
Density dependence
Developmental stages
Environments
Fertility
Freshwater
Freshwater crustaceans
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Growth rate
Life history
Offspring
Population density
Population dynamics
Population growth
Synecology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Studies of planktonic organisms have shown that various life-history traits, and consequently population growth rate, can be affected by chemical cues released by high densities of conspecifics. In this work we test for potential delays in population responses to conspecific cues in the cladoceran Daphnia ambigua through: (i) evaluating the influence of maternal environment on life-history traits of their daughters, and (ii) identifying the developmental stages that need to be exposed to conspecific cues to observe significant changes in life-history attributes. Our results revealed that exposure to conspecific cues decreased population growth rate of D. ambigua, mainly due to reduced offspring number and delayed maturation. Growth rate reduction was also dependent on the mother’s environment, and interaction effects arose between current generation and past-generation environments. The observed variations in maturity and fertility were triggered by exposure to conspecific cues during early development. We hypothesize that conspecific cues are able to induce delayed life-history effects and therefore delayed density dependence at the population level.
ISSN:0142-7873
1464-3774
DOI:10.1093/plankt/fbn071