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Effects of salinity, food level, and the presence of microcrustacean zooplankters on the population dynamics of rotifer Brachionus rotundiformis

  • ZOOPLANKTON ECOLOGY
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Abstract

We investigated the population dynamics of the rotifer Brachionus rotundiformis fed with the alga Isochrysis galbana at two food concentrations (3 × 104 and 40 × 104 cells ml−1) and four salinity levels (5, 10, 20, and 30) in the presence and absence of two copepod species, Pseudodiaptomus annandalei and Apocyclops royi and one cladoceran, Diaphanosoma aspinosum. Both the density and population growth rate of B. rotundiformis increased at higher food concentration and at salinity levels of 10 and 20. Among the microcrustaceans, only P. annandalei had a significant negative effect on the growth rate of the rotifer population because of its efficient predation. In contrast, the presence of both A. royi and D. aspinosum did not affect the growth rates at any of the salinity and food levels. Brachionus rotundiformis had significantly larger size during the log-phase, particularly if P. annandalei was present. Thus, B. rotundiformis grows better at higher food level and medium salinity levels. Unlike the larger calanoid, P. annandalei, B. rotundiformis can definitely coexist with relatively small cyclopoid copepods (A. royi) and cladocerans (D. aspinosum), because of the absence of interference.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Council of Agriculture of Taiwan for the project (95AS-6.1.6-AI-A1(1)) of S. H. Cheng and are grateful for the assistance provided by the lab staff of J. S. Hwang. Samba Kâ and Ram Kumar are grateful to the National Science Council of Taiwan for post-doctoral fellowships. We are grateful to the National Science Council of Taiwan for financial support to J. S. Hwang (grant nos. NSC98-2621-B-019-001-MY3 and NSC98-2311-B-019-002-MY3). We thank Ramesh Gulati and another anonymous reviewer for their useful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tungkang Biotechnology Research Center, Fisheries Research Institute, Tungkang, Pingtung, 928, Taiwan

    Shin-Hong Cheng

  2. Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, 202, Taiwan

    Samba Kâ, Chung-Su Kuo & Jiang-Shiou Hwang

  3. Ecosystem Research Laboratory, Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi, Govindpuri, Kalkaji, New Delhi, 110019, India

    Ram Kumar

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  1. Shin-Hong Cheng
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  2. Samba Kâ
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Correspondence to Jiang-Shiou Hwang.

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Guest editors: J.-S. Hwang and K. Martens / Zooplankton Behavior and Ecology

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Cheng, SH., Kâ, S., Kumar, R. et al. Effects of salinity, food level, and the presence of microcrustacean zooplankters on the population dynamics of rotifer Brachionus rotundiformis . Hydrobiologia 666, 289–299 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0615-6

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