Premium
Nutritional quality of food resources for zooplankton ( Daphnia ) in a tidal freshwater system (Sacramento‐San Joaquin River Delta)
Author(s) -
MüllerSolger Anke B.,
Jassby Alan D.,
MüllerNavarra Dörthe C.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.2002.47.5.1468
Subject(s) - seston , detritus , zooplankton , phytoplankton , daphnia , san joaquin , plankton , branchiopoda , habitat , biology , ecology , phaeodactylum tricornutum , environmental science , chlorophyll a , cladocera , nutrient , algae , botany , soil science
We examined the relative nutritional values of natural phytoplankton and particulate detritus for zooplankton growth in a detritus‐rich environment. Seston was collected seasonally from four different habitat types in a tidal freshwater system and fed to juvenile Daphnia magna under controlled culture conditions by use of a flow‐through design. Seston particulate organic carbon (POC) and chlorophyll a contents ranged from ~330 to 3,800 µg L -1 POC and 1.4 to 45 µg L -1 Chl a. A partial residual analysis revealed that detrital carbon concentrations were only weakly related to Daphnia growth, whereas Chl a proved to be highly predictive of Daphnia growth rates across all investigated habitat types. Overall, habitat type had a strong effect on growth rates, whereas season of seston collection did not, but differences among habitats could be attributed to differing Chl a concentrations. The results from this study imply that, even in systems with overwhelming amounts of detrital carbon from a variety of sources, nutritional factors associated with phytoplankton can be dominant in regulating zooplankton growth.