Rotifers have often been used as indicators of sudden changes in physical and chemical features of the aquatic environment. Such features vary greatly during flood pulse events in small lakes connected to major floodplains. However, few are the studies that investigate the consequences of the flood pulse in rotifer species composition, abundance, richness and diversity, especially in Amazonian ...

The uptake of resources from the environment is a vital process for all organisms. Many experimental studies have revealed that the rate at which this process occurs depends critically on the resource concentration, a relationship called ‘‘functional response.’’ However, whether the concentration of the consumer normally affects the functional response has been the subject of a long-standing, p...

The distribution and abundance of zooplankton species of Harapan and Aman Lakes were investigated in relation to physical parameters and chlorophyll-a content. Both lakes were characterised by the occurrence of algal bloom problem. The composition of zooplankton was collected at monthly intervals from November 2013 to February 2014. The total number of taxa in Harapan and Aman Lakes were 23 and...

Pyrethroids play an important role in modern agriculture but their use is not without risks to non-target organisms and habitats. They have high toxicity to a broad spectrum of aquatic organisms. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of low concentration (0.02 μg l(-1)) of two widely used pyrethroids--cypermethrin and deltamethrin on phyto- and zooplankton. The acute bioassays were...

Crowding chemicals influence a wide variety of life history traits in zooplankton communities. In the rotifer Brachionus, sexual reproduction (mixis) is induced by a chemical signal produced by the rotifers that accumulates during population growth. The specificity of the reaction to the mixis induction signal could play a central role in maintaining reproductive barriers between closely relate...

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture takes advantage of the mutualism between some detritivorous fish and phytoplankton. The fish recycle nutrients by consuming live (and dead) algae and provide the inorganic carbon to fuel the growth of live algae. In the meanwhile, algae purify the water and generate the oxygen required by fishes. Such mechanism stabilizes the functioning of an artificially r...

1. The analysis of functional groups with a resolution to the individual species level is a basic requirement to better understand complex interactions in aquatic food webs. Species-specific stable isotope analyses are currently applied to analyse the trophic role of large zooplankton or fish species, but technical constraints complicate their application to smaller-sized plankton. 2. We invest...