Browsing by Subject "Zooplankton"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Eco-evolutionary feedbacks in community and ecosystem ecology: interactions between the ecological theatre and the evolutionary play.
(Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 2009-06-12) Post, DM; Palkovacs, EP
Interactions between natural selection and environmental change are well recognized and sit at the core of ecology and evolutionary biology. Reciprocal interactions between ecology and evolution, eco-evolutionary feedbacks, are less well studied, even though they may be critical for understanding the evolution of biological diversity, the structure of communities and the function of ecosystems. Eco-evolutionary feedbacks require that populations alter their environment (niche construction) and that those changes in the environment feed back to influence the subsequent evolution of the population. There is strong evidence that organisms influence their environment through predation, nutrient excretion and habitat modification, and that populations evolve in response to changes in their environment at time-scales congruent with ecological change (contemporary evolution). Here, we outline how the niche construction and contemporary evolution interact to alter the direction of evolution and the structure and function of communities and ecosystems. We then present five empirical systems that highlight important characteristics of eco-evolutionary feedbacks: rotifer-algae chemostats; alewife-zooplankton interactions in lakes; guppy life-history evolution and nutrient cycling in streams; avian seed predators and plants; and tree leaf chemistry and soil processes. The alewife-zooplankton system provides the most complete evidence for eco-evolutionary feedbacks, but other systems highlight the potential for eco-evolutionary feedbacks in a wide variety of natural systems.
Open Access
Experimental evidence that phenotypic divergence in predators drives community divergence in prey.
(Ecology, 2009-02) Palkovacs, EP; Post, DM
Studies of adaptive divergence have traditionally focused on the ecological causes of trait diversification, while the ecological consequences of phenotypic divergence remain relatively unexplored. Divergence in predator foraging traits, in particular, has the potential to impact the structure and dynamics of ecological communities. To examine the effects of predator trait divergence on prey communities, we exposed zooplankton communities in lake mesocosms to predation from either anadromous or landlocked (freshwater resident) alewives, which have undergone recent and rapid phenotypic differentiation in foraging traits (gape width, gill raker spacing, and prey size-selectivity). Anadromous alewives, which exploit large prey items, significantly reduced the mean body size, total biomass, species richness, and diversity of crustacean zooplankton relative to landlocked alewives, which exploit smaller prey. The zooplankton responses observed in this experiment are consistent with patterns observed in lakes. This study provides direct evidence that phenotypic divergence in predators, even in its early stages, can play a critical role in determining prey community structure.
Open Access
Intraspecific variation in a predator affects community structure and cascading trophic interactions.
(Ecology, 2008-07) Post, DM; Palkovacs, EP; Schielke, EG; Dodson, SI
Intraspecific phenotypic variation in ecologically important traits is widespread and important for evolutionary processes, but its effects on community and ecosystem processes are poorly understood. We use life history differences among populations of alewives, Alosa pseudoharengus, to test the effects of intraspecific phenotypic variation in a predator on pelagic zooplankton community structure and the strength of cascading trophic interactions. We focus on the effects of differences in (1) the duration of residence in fresh water (either seasonal or year-round) and (2) differences in foraging morphology, both of which may strongly influence interactions between alewives and their prey. We measured zooplankton community structure, algal biomass, and spring total phosphorus in lakes that contained landlocked, anadromous, or no alewives. Both the duration of residence and the intraspecific variation in foraging morphology strongly influenced zooplankton community structure. Lakes with landlocked alewives had small-bodied zooplankton year-round, and lakes with no alewives had large-bodied zooplankton year-round. In contrast, zooplankton communities in lakes with anadromous alewives cycled between large-bodied zooplankton in the winter and spring and small-bodied zooplankton in the summer. In summer, differences in feeding morphology of alewives caused zooplankton biomass to be lower and body size to be smaller in lakes with anadromous alewives than in lakes with landlocked alewives. Furthermore, intraspecific variation altered the strength of the trophic cascade caused by alewives. Our results demonstrate that intraspecific phenotypic variation of predators can regulate community structure and ecosystem processes by modifying the form and strength of complex trophic interactions.