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JPR Advance Access published online on February 20, 2006
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi142
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received January 19, 2006
Accepted February 14, 2006

Article

Multiple Predator Defence Strategies in Daphnia pulex and Their Relation to Native Habitat

Wiebke J. Boeing 1 *, Charles W. Ramcharan 2, and Howard P. Riessen 3

1 Louisiana State University, Department of Biological Sciences, 508 Life Sciences Building, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA; present address: Department of Fishery and Wildlife Sciences, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30003, MSC 4901, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA
2 School of the Coast & Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA; present address: Department of Biology, Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 2C6, Canada
3 State University of New York College at Buffalo, Department of Biology, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, NY, 14222, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Wiebke J. Boeing, E-mail: wboeing{at}nmsu.edu


  Abstract

Daphnia may respond with an array of antipredator defences (behavioral, morphological, life-history) to a chemical cue (kairomone) exuded by its predators: fish and Chaoborus. Given the wide array of potential responses, it is an interesting question whether antipredator defences are coupled or independent of each other. Since antipredator responses are costly and even possessing the genetic information to respond to a certain predator might involve a cost, clones may only react to predators they co-occur with in nature. In this study we provide evidence for an uncoupling of responses by Daphnia pulex in several antipredator defences against Chaoborus. We were unable to detect a correlation between behavioral (migration), morphological (neck-spine induction), and life-history (growth rate, neonate size and size at first reproduction) responses. Furthermore, antipredator responses did not always comply with what is commonly believed. We found that Daphnia clones can migrate up or down when exposed to fish or Chaoborus kairomone, and that population growth rate, neonate size and size at first reproduction can increase or decrease in response to Chaoborus kairomone. We also show patterns in antipredator defences that seem to relate to the habitat from which clones were derived. Daphnia clones that were collected in habitats with Chaoborus as the dominant predator tended to react strongly to Chaoborus kairomone by migrating upward and producing neckspines. The migration behaviour against fish kairomone in these clones was often an unexpected upward migration. The Daphnia clone that co-existed with fish predators showed a downward migration in the presence of fish as well as Chaoborus kairomone. Clones that had occurred with either both or no predators had mixed responses. We sometimes found an upward migration in combination with smaller body size as a response to Chaoborus kairomone. This may be interpreted as a behavioural defence against Chaoborus and a life-history defence against fish. Daphnia seem not to exhibit defence behaviour against predators they do not co-occur with. It might be costly for Daphnia to maintain genetic information to respond to these predators and protect that information from genetic drift.

Communicating Editor: J Lehman


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