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Carbon transfer from the submerged macrophyte Hydrilla verticillata to zooplankton: a 13C-labeled mesocosm study

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Abstract

Submerged macrophytes cannot be utilized directly by zooplankton. However, vegetation can serve as an organic carbon resource for heterotrophic bacteria, which are themselves accessible to zooplankton. We therefore hypothesize that submerged macrophytes supply a carbon source to zooplankton by increasing the availability of food such as heterotrophic bacteria. Here, we used stable carbon isotope (13C) labeling to trace the carbon flow from submerged macrophytes to zooplankton with a mesocosm experiment. The carbon stable isotope ratios of zooplankton and their potential food sources were analyzed in mesocosms planted with 13C-labeled Hydrilla verticillata (L. f.) Royle in comparison with the control in which plastic plants were planted. We found that all potential food resources of zooplankton, including phytoplankton, bacterioplankton, macrophyte-associated epiphyton and epibacteria, were significantly enriched with 13C in the presence of 13C-enriched H. verticillata. Zooplankton were significantly more enriched with 13C than phytoplankton, epiphyton and bacterioplankton but significantly less enriched with 13C than epibacteria. Based on a stable isotopic mixing model, we found a macrophyte carbon contribution of 30.5% to epibacteria and 14.7% to zooplankton. Our results indicated that macrophytes might be used by zooplankton as a carbon resource, mainly via a pathway involving epibacteria attached to macrophytes.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Amy-Jane Beer for language editing, and we are grateful to Luigi Naselli-Flores and the reviewers for providing us with valuable comments and to other participants who collected and analyzed samples during the experimental period. We consider this work a joint contribution from the Department of Ecology and Institute of Hydrobiology, funded by Jinan University, China. This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32071566 and 41471086).

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32071566 and 41471086).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrobiology and Department of Ecology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Ling Su, Zongan Jin, Lichao Xie, Yali Tang, Zhengwen Liu, Ping Zhong & Qiuqi Lin

  2. State Key Lab. of Lake and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Zhengwen Liu & Yaling Su

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  1. Ling Su
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Contributions

Conceptualization: ZL, YT and LS; methodology: YT, LS, ZJ and LX; writing—original draft preparation: LS; Writing—review and editing: YT, ZL, YS, LS, PZ and QL.

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Correspondence to Yali Tang.

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Su, L., Jin, Z., Xie, L. et al. Carbon transfer from the submerged macrophyte Hydrilla verticillata to zooplankton: a 13C-labeled mesocosm study. Hydrobiologia 848, 4179–4188 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04645-3

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