Search results for "brachionus"
showing 10 items of 72 documents
Density-dependent regulation of natural and laboratory rotifer populations
2001
Density-dependent regulation of abundance is fundamentally important in the dynamics of most animal populations. Density effects, however, have rarely been quantified in natural populations, so population models typically have a large uncertainty in their predictions. We used models generated from time series analysis to explore the form and strength of density-dependence in several natural rotifer populations. Population growth rate (r) decreased linearly or non-linearly with increased population density, depending on the rotifer species. Density effects in natural populations reduced r to 0 at densities of 1–101−1 for 8 of the 9 rotifer species investigated. The sensitivities of these spe…
Starvation tolerance of rotifers produced from parthenogenetic eggs and from diapausing eggs: a life table approach
2006
Monogonont rotifers have to cope with environmental variation by producing diapausing stages.Cyclically, parthenogenetic rotifers produce females by (i) parthenogenetic eggs and (ii) sexuallyproduced eggs. Parthenogenetic eggs hatch shortly after ovoposition, frequently while they are carriedby their mothers. Sexual eggs go into dormancy and hatch in the sediment, in response to specificenvironmental cues. Therefore, it is expected that post-diapause and parthenogenetic offspring wouldface different environments. Moreover, resource allocation is higher in diapausing eggs than inparthenogenetic eggs. In this study, the response to starvation of females obtained from partheno-genetic eggs and …
Hatching and viability of rotifer diapausing eggs collected from pond sediments
2006
SUMMARY 1. Planktonic rotifers inhabiting variable environments produce diapausing eggs that accumulate in the sediment of lakes and ponds, forming egg banks that may withstand adverse periods. A common assumption in zooplankton diapausing egg bank studies is to count as viable all eggs in the sediment that look healthy. This assumption should be challenged by asking how effectively ‘healthy-looking’ eggs represent viable eggs. 2. In this study, viability of more than 1100 ‘healthy-looking’ diapausing eggs belonging to the Brachionus plicatilis species complex was assessed in a laboratory hatching experiment. Eggs were collected at different depths from sediment cores obtained from 15 ponds…
Effect of pentachlorophenol on predator-prey interaction of two rotifers
1997
Abstract The effect of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on the predator-prey relationship of two rotifers (Asplanchna girodi and Brachionus calyciflorus) was studied using Asplanchna predatory behavior as an endpoint. The experimental design included three treatments: prey and predator exposure, only prey exposure, and only predator exposure. This enabled us to distinguish toxic effects on the predator from those on the prey and to detect interactions. The main toxic effects observed were on the predator and involved the number of predator-prey encounters. Encounters decreased in a dose-dependent manner, with a no observed effect threshold at 0.11 mg PCP l−1. Decrease in encounter rate reduced the n…
Biometric analysis of Brachionus plicatilis ecotypes from Spanish lagoons
1983
Univariate comparisons and several multivariate statistical analyses have been performed to study the morphometric variability of B. plicatilis. Both laboratory clones kept under constant conditions and natural populations from different Spanish lagoons and different times of the year have been compared. The results show that not only size, but also allometric coefficients are influenced by environmental factors. However, an important genetic component in the variation of shape and size has been visualized. A clear North-South ordination of the populations of the different lagoons and an important dispersion between their summer populations as well as great differences due to seasonal varia…
Ecotoxicological studies with the freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus. Resource competition between rotifers and daphnids under toxic stress
1993
Abstract This study examined the ability of the freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus to coexist with the large cladoceran Daphnia magna, and the effect of sublethal concentrations of copper on the competition between both species. Preliminary laboratory experiments showed that large Daphnia (> 1.2 mm) can kill and rapidly exclude the rotifer B. calyciflorus in mixed-species cultures. Brachionus populations were suppressed by Daphnia both through exploitative competition for shared, limited food resources and through mechanical interference. At a food concentration of 1 X 105 cells/ml of Nannochloris oculata, competition caused high mortality rates and decreased fertility in the rotife…
Effect of the insecticide methylparathion on filtration and ingestion rates of Brachionus calyciflorus and Daphnia magna
1993
The freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus and the cladocera Daphnia magna were exposed to sublethal levels of methylparathion to determine the effect on filtration and ingestion rates. The experiments were performed using the unicellular algae, Nannochloris oculata in a density of 5 × 105 cell/ml. Prior to feeding experiments, preliminary acute toxicity tests were carried out to determine 24-h LC50 values for both species, these values indicated that Daphnia magna was more sensitive to methylparathion acute exposure than Brachionus calyciflorus was. Rates of filtration and ingestion declined with increasing methylparathion concentrations after an exposure of 5 h to this toxicant. The e…
Effects of population outcrossing on rotifer fitness
2010
Abstract Background Outcrossing between populations can exert either positive or negative effects on offspring fitness. Cyclically parthenogenetic rotifers, like other continental zooplankters, show high genetic differentiation despite their high potential for passive dispersal. Within this context, the effects of outcrossing may be relevant in modulating gene flow between populations through selection for or against interpopulation hybrids. Nevertheless, these effects remain practically unexplored in rotifers. Here, the consequences of outcrossing on the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis were investigated. Cross-mating experiments were performed between a reference population and three alterna…
Demographic parameters of Brachionus calyciflorus Pallas (Rotifers) exposed to sublethal endosulfan concentrations
1991
The effects of sublethal levels of endosulfan (0, 1, 1.5, 2.5 and 3.3 mg 1−1) on the demography of the rotifer Brachionus calyciorus were studied. Life expectancy at birth (e o), net reproductive rate (Ro), generation time (T) and intrinsic rate of natural increase (r) were significant differentes between blank controls and controls with acetone. The effective endosulfan concentration at which a given parameter value was reduced to 50% of the controls (EC50) was calculated for life expectancy.
Behavioral reproductive isolation among sympatric strains of Brachionus plicatilis Müller 1786: insights into the status of this taxonomic species
1995
We present results on cross-mating experiments using Brachionus plicatilis strains collected in three ponds of a coastal marsh (Torreblanca Marsh, Castellon, Spain). These strains were known to differ widely both in morphology and allozyme patterns from a previous study, where they were grouped into three genetically different clonal groups. Although some of the strains co-occurred in the same pond and sexual periods overlapped, no gene flow was found among them. Our first objective was to determine whether behavioral reproductive isolation was responsible for the absence of interbreeding. A second objective was to explore the relationship between sexual isolation and genetic divergence. We…