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Temperature effects on the feeding and electron transport system (ETS) activity of Gammarus fossarum

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Abstract

The effects of an increase in water temperature as a direct consequence of global change on organisms living in springs and spring brooks have rarely been studied in laboratory experiments. In this study, experiments were conducted to test the response of Gammarus fossarum Koch, 1836, as an abundant representative of the European spring fauna, to changing water temperatures. The aim was to find out experimentally how G. fossarum reacts to varying and increasing water temperatures. The experiments were conducted in flow channels with spring water. In each flow channel, G. fossarum were placed in boxes with a flow-through system for 4 weeks. Two analytical methods were applied: the feeding activity of the amphipods was quantified in order to determine the reaction of G. fossarum on the level of the organism and the respiratory electron transport system (ETS) assay was conducted in order to determine changes in the test organisms on the cellular level. The results show that the feeding activity of G. fossarum increased with increasing water temperature, up to an optimum, indicating an increase in their metabolic activity. The ETS activity does not show significant differences at the different temperatures tested. A possible explanation for this is the ability of the organisms to adapt quickly to the changed environmental circumstances.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided by the Janggen-Pöhn-Stiftung. T. Simcic kindly introduced us to the ETS assay. C. Clarke proof-read the manuscript. I. Röthele conducted a few experiments testing for differences between the sexes of the gammarids and their ETS activity. Thanks are owing to four anonymous reviewers who made valuable comments on the manuscript. Thanks are also owing to further numerous people, especially to the first author’s family for valuable technical support and discussion.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Biogeography Research Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 10, 4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Lara Schmidlin, Stefanie von Fumetti & Peter Nagel

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  1. Lara Schmidlin
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  2. Stefanie von Fumetti
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  3. Peter Nagel
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Correspondence to Lara Schmidlin.

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Handling Editor: Piet Spaak.

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Schmidlin, L., von Fumetti, S. & Nagel, P. Temperature effects on the feeding and electron transport system (ETS) activity of Gammarus fossarum . Aquat Ecol 49, 71–80 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-015-9505-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-015-9505-8

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