Abstract
Planktonic rotifers live in a world where food abundance can change rapidly and where food limitation is common and sometimes extreme. The goal of this review is to synthesize the ecological importance of food limitation in nature with the physiological responses of rotifers to starvation in the laboratory. Different rotifer species have very different responses to starvation. Some species respond to food deprivation by decreasing their metabolic rate and curtailing reproduction, while other species maintain a constant metabolic rate and continue to produce eggs, essentially reproducing themselves to death. This tradeoff between survival and reproduction explains much of the several-fold range in starvation times of different rotifer species. Future research is needed on the chemical composition of energy reserves in rotifers, the patterns of allocation of those reserves during starvation, and the frequency of starvation episodes in nature.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cordova SE, Giffin J, Kirk KL (2001) Food limitation of planktonic rotifers: field experiments in two mountain ponds. Freshwater Biol 46:1519–1527
Fischer B, Taborsky B, Dieckmann U (2009) Unexpected patterns of plastic energy allocation in stochastic environments. Am Nat 173:E108–E120
Gilbert JJ, Bogdan KG (1984) Rotifer grazing: in situ studies on selectivity and rates. In: Meyers DG, Strickler JR (eds) Trophic interactions within aquatic ecosystems. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Colorado
Gilbert JJ, Schreiber DK (1998) Asexual diapause induced by food limitation in the rotifer Synchaeta pectinata. Ecology 79:1371–1381
Gladyshev E, Meselson M (2008) Extreme resistance of bdelloid rotifers to ionizing radiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:5139–5144
Gonzalez MJ, Frost TM (1992) Food limitation and seasonal population declines in rotifers. Oecologia 89:560–566
Grover JP (1997) Resource competition. Chapman and Hall, London
Hairston NG Jr, Ellner S, Kearns CM (1996) Overlapping generations: the storage effect and the maintenance of biotic diversity. In: Rhodes OE Jr, Chesser RK, Smith MH (eds) Population Dynamics in Ecological Space and Time. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Holliday R (1989) Food, reproduction and longevity: is extended lifespan of caloric restricted animals an evolutionary adaptation? BioEssays 10:125–127
Kirk KL (1997) Life-history responses to variable environments: starvation and reproduction in planktonic rotifers. Ecology 78:434–441
Kirk KL (2001) Dietary restriction and aging: comparative tests of evolutionary hypotheses. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 56A:B123–B129
Kirk KL (2002) Competition in variable environments: experiments with planktonic rotifers. Freshwater Biol 47:1089–1096
Kirk KL, Ellis J, Taylor J (1999) Physiological responses to variable environments: storage and respiration in starving rotifers. Freshwater Biol 42:637–644
Kirkwood TBL, Shanley DP (2005) Food restriction, evolution and ageing. Mech Ageing Dev 126:1011–1016
Masoro EJ, Austad SN (1996) The evolution of the antiaging action of dietary restriction: a hypothesis. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 51A:B387–B391
McCue MD (2010) Starvation physiology: reviewing the different strategies animals use to survive a common challenge. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol 156:1–18
Merriman JL, Kirk KL (2000) Temporal patterns of resource limitation in natural populations of rotifers. Ecology 81:141–149
Ricci C, Perletti F (2006) Starve and survive: stress tolerance and life-history traits of a bdelloid rotifer. Funct Ecol 20:340–346
Rothhaupt KO (1990) Resource competition of herbivorous zooplankton: a review of approaches and perspectives. Arch Hydrobiol 118:1–29
Shertzer KW, Ellner SP (2002) State-dependent energy allocation in variable environments: life history evolution of a rotifer. Ecology 83:2181–2193
Stearns SC (1992) The evolution of life histories. Oxford University Press, New York
Stelzer C-P (2001) Resource limitation and reproductive effort in a planktonic rotifer. Ecology 82:2521–2533
Stelzer C-P (2005) Evolution of rotifer life histories. Hydrobiologia 546:335–346
Stemberger RS (1981) A general approach to the culture of planktonic rotifers. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 38:721–724
Stemberger RS, Gilbert JJ (1985) Body size, food concentration, and population growth in planktonic rotifers. Ecology 66:1151–1159
Sterner RW, Hagemeier DD, Smith WL, Smith RF (1993) Phytoplankton nutrient limitation and food quality for Daphnia. Limnol Oceanogr 38:857–871
Stewart AJ, Wetzel RG (1986) Cryptophytes and other microflagellates as couplers in planktonic community dynamics. Arch Hydrobiol 106:1–19
Tessier AJ, Goulden CE (1982) Estimating food limitation in cladoceran populations. Limnol Oceanogr 27:707–717
Thorp JH, Covich AP (2001) Ecology and classification of North American freshwater invertebrates. Academic Press, Florida
Threlkeld ST (1979) Starvation and size structure of zooplankton communities. Freshwater Biol 6:489–496
Wallace RL (2002) Rotifers: exquisite metazoans. Integr Comp Biol 42:660–667
Weithoff G (2007) Dietary restriction in two rotifer species: the effect of the length of food deprivation on life span and reproduction. Oecologia 153:303–308
Yoshinaga T, Hagiwara A, Tsukamoto K (2003) Life history response and age-specific tolerance to starvation in Brachionus plicatilis O.F. Muller (Rotifer). J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 287:261–271
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kirk, K.L. (2012). Starvation in Rotifers: Physiology in an Ecological Context. In: McCue, M. (eds) Comparative Physiology of Fasting, Starvation, and Food Limitation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29056-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29056-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-29055-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-29056-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)