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Amino acid composition reveals functional diversity of zooplankton in tropical lakes related to geography, taxonomy and productivity

  • Community ecology – original research
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Abstract

Variation in resource use among species determines their potential for competition and co-existence, as well as their impact on ecosystem processes. Planktonic crustaceans consume a range of micro-organisms that vary among habitats and species, but these differences in resource consumption are difficult to characterize due to the small size of the organisms. Consumers acquire amino acids from their diet, and the composition of tissues reflects both the use of different resources and their assimilation in proteins. We examined the amino acid composition of common crustacean zooplankton from 14 tropical lakes in Colombia in three regions (the Amazon floodplain, the eastern range of the Andes, and the Caribbean coast). Amino acid composition varied significantly among taxonomic groups and the three regions. Functional richness in amino acid space was greatest in the Amazon, the most productive region, and tended to be positively related to lake trophic status, suggesting the niche breadth of the community could increase with ecosystem productivity. Functional evenness increased with lake trophic status, indicating that species were more regularly distributed within community-wide niche space in more productive lakes. These results show that zooplankton resource use in tropical lakes varies with both habitat and taxonomy, and that lake productivity may affect community functional diversity and the distribution of species within niche space.

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Acknowledgements

NA was supported by a graduate fellowship from Colciencias 1892–2006. JS was supported by a Fulbright Colombia Fellowship, JS and NTJ were supported by NSF DEB 1457737.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Ecología en Sistemas Acuáticos UDESA, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Avenida Central del Norte 39-115, Tunja, Boyacá, Colombia

    Nelson J. Aranguren-Riaño

  2. Departamento de Ecología y Biología Animal, Universidad de Vigo, 36310, Vigo, Spain

    Cástor Guisande

  3. Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. #0116, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Jonathan B. Shurin & Natalie T. Jones

  4. Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR), Avenida General Norton de Matos s/n, Matosinhos, Portugal

    Aldo Barreiro

  5. Grupo de Limnología Amazónica, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Amazonia, Leticia, Colombia

    Santiago R. Duque

Authors
  1. Nelson J. Aranguren-Riaño
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  2. Cástor Guisande
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  3. Jonathan B. Shurin
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  4. Natalie T. Jones
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  5. Aldo Barreiro
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  6. Santiago R. Duque
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Contributions

NJA, CG, AB and SD collected field samples and analyzed amino acids in the laboratory, NJA, JBS and NTJ analyzed the data, and all authors wrote and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan B. Shurin.

Additional information

Communicated by Ulrich Sommer.

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Aranguren-Riaño, N.J., Guisande, C., Shurin, J.B. et al. Amino acid composition reveals functional diversity of zooplankton in tropical lakes related to geography, taxonomy and productivity. Oecologia 187, 719–730 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4130-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4130-6

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