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Cue hierarchy in the foraging behaviour of the brackish cladoceran Daphniopsis australis

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Abstract

Zooplankton communities are an essential component of marine and freshwater food webs. However, there is still a relative lack of information on how these organisms behaviourally respond to a range of abiotic and biotic stressors. Specifically, the behaviour of the cladoceran Daphniopsis australis, a species endemic to South-eastern Australian saline lakes and ponds, is still unknown despite its potential role in the structure and function of inland water ecosystems. The swimming behaviour of males, parthenogenetic females and epiphial females was investigated under various conditions and combinations of food and conspecific cues. In the absence of cues, males displayed the most extensive swimming behaviour, exploring all areas of the container, and swimming in a series of relatively straight trajectories. In contrast, females typically exhibited a hop-and-sink motion characterised by the alternation between short bursts of swimming and sinking phases. Both females spent long periods near the bottom of the container, but epiphial females appeared to be more active than parthenogenetic ones that rarely made an excursion in the water column. In the presence of cues, males and females showed abilities to detect infochemicals from food and conspecifics, but exhibited specific behavioural strategies. Males essentially increased their swimming speed in the presence of food and/or conspecific infochemicals, and this increase was independent on the source of the cues, i.e. food, conspecific or a mixture of food and conspecifics. In contrast, females exhibited cue hierarchies that were related to their sexual status. Parthenogenetic females swam faster in the presence of food and a mixture of food and conspecific infochemicals than in the presence of cue from the opposite sex, which did not significantly differ from control observations conducted in the absence of cues. Epiphial females decreased their swimming speed in the presence of cues, with the most significant behavioural answers being driven by sex-related cues.

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Acknowledgement

This research was supported by an Honours Scholarship from Flinders University to C. McCloud, and an Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (project DP0664681). Professor Seuront is the recipient of an Australian Professorial Fellowship (project DP0988554). This work is a contribution to the CPER research project CLIMIBIO. The authors thank the French Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, the Hauts de France Region and the European Funds for Regional Economical Development for their financial support to this project.

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  1. Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Canberra, Australia

    Clayton Leigh McCloud

  2. School of Biology, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Malaysia

    Hasnun Nita Ismail

  3. CNRS, Univ. Lille, Univ. Littoral Côte d’Opale, UMR 8187, LOG, Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences, F 62930, Wimereux, France

    Laurent Seuront

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  1. Clayton Leigh McCloud
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McCloud, C.L., Ismail, H.N. & Seuront, L. Cue hierarchy in the foraging behaviour of the brackish cladoceran Daphniopsis australis. J. Ocean. Limnol. 36, 2050–2060 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-7335-y

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