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The impact of diel vertical migration of Daphnia on phytoplankton dynamics

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Abstract

Diel vertical migration (DVM) of large zooplankton is a very common phenomenon in the pelagic zone of lakes and oceans. Although the underlying mechanisms of DVM are well understood, we lack experimental studies on the consequences of this behaviour for the zooplankton’s food resource—the phytoplankton. As large zooplankton species or individuals migrate downwards into lower and darker water strata by day and upwards into surface layers by night, a huge amount of herbivorous biomass moves through the water column twice a day. This migration must have profound consequences for the phytoplankton. It is generally assumed that migration supports an enhanced phytoplankton biomass and a change in the composition of the phytoplankton community towards smaller, edible algae in the epilimnion of a lake. We tested this assumption for the first time in field experiments by comparing phytoplankton biomass and community assemblage in mesocosms with and without artificially migrating natural stocks of Daphnia hyalina. We show that DVM can enhance phytoplankton biomass in the epilimnion and that it has a strong impact on the composition of a phytoplankton community leading to an advantage for small, edible algae. Our results support the idea that DVM of Daphnia can have strong effects on phytoplankton dynamics in a lake.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Angelika Wild, Achim Weigert, Maren Striebel, Nina Weller, Simone Riedel, and Claudia Kellermann for their help during the experiments and Sebastian Diehl and the three anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a scholarship for Ph.D. students of the University of Munich (LMU) and by the DFG (Di 745/3).

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  1. Elke S. Reichwaldt

    Present address: Max-Planck-Institute of Limnology, Postfach 165, 24302, Plön, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Biologie II, Aquatische Ökologie, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Großhadener Str. 2, 82152, Martinsried, Germany

    Elke S. Reichwaldt & Herwig Stibor

Authors
  1. Elke S. Reichwaldt
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  2. Herwig Stibor
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Correspondence to Elke S. Reichwaldt.

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Communicated by Ulrich Sommer

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Reichwaldt, E.S., Stibor, H. The impact of diel vertical migration of Daphnia on phytoplankton dynamics. Oecologia 146, 50–56 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0176-3

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