We show that Daphnia magna can be used to assess acute virulence of pathogens relevant to human health, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Photorhabdus asymbiotica. Analysis of bacterial mutants suggests that P. aeruginosa uses similar mechanisms to infect Daphnia and other hosts.

Food webs in three lake basins were manipulated by altering fish communities to either reduce or increase the abundance o f Daphnia. These basins were subsequently fertilized with nitrogen and phosphorus for two years. W e tested three predictions about the response o f heterotrophic flagellates, ciliates, and rotifers (collectively, microzooplankton) derived from prior studies. W e predicted t...

Aquatic invertebrate animals such as Amphipods, Gastropods (pond snails), Ostracods and Daphnia (water flea) were placed in water-filled cylindrical vessels together with water plant (hornwort). The vessels were sealed completely and illuminated with a fluorescent lamp to activate the photosynthesis of the plant for providing oxygen within the vessels. Such ecosystem vessels, specially termed a...

Eutrophication has been one of the largest environmental problems in aquatic ecosystems during the past decades, leading to dense, and often toxic, cyanobacterial blooms. In a way to counteract these problems many lakes have been subject to restoration through biomanipulation. Here we combine 13 years of monitoring data with experimental assessment of grazing efficiency of a naturally occurring...

The class of deterministic 'Daphnia' models treated by Diekmann et al. (J Math Biol 61:277-318, 2010) has a long history going back to Nisbet and Gurney (Theor Pop Biol 23:114-135, 1983) and Diekmann et al. (Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde 4:82-109, 1984). In this note, we formulate the individual based models (IBM) supposedly underlying those deterministic models. The models treat the interaction ...

We describe the first genetic linkage map for Daphnia pulex using 185 microsatellite markers, including 115 new markers reported in this study. Our approach was to study the segregation of polymorphisms in 129 F2 progeny of one F1 hybrid obtained by crossing two genetically divergent lineages of Daphnia isolated from two Oregon populations. The map spanned 1206 Kosambi cM and had an average int...

In insects, the homologue of the Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (Dscam) is a unique case of a single-locus gene whose expression has extensive somatic diversification in both the nervous and immune systems. How this situation evolved is best understood through comparative studies. We describe structural, expression, and evolutionary aspects of a Dscam homolog in 2 species of the crustacea...

The class of deterministic ’Daphnia’ models treated by Diekmann et al. (J Math Biol 61: 277–318, 2010) has a long history going back to Nisbet and Gurney (Theor Pop Biol 23: 114–135, 1983) and Diekmann et al. (Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde 4: 82–109, 1984). In this note, we formulate the individual based models (IBM) supposedly underlying those deterministic models. The models treat the interacti...

Because of their trophodynamic role, small invertebrates are often critical components of ecosystems. An especially important group of freshwater invertebrates is the water fleas of the genus Daphnia. These animals are often the dominant herbivores in lakes and ponds. They play a key role in determining water clarity (by grazing on algae) and they are an important part of the diet of fish. Natu...

When individuals from multiple populations colonize a new habitat patch, intraspecific trait variation can make the arrival order of colonists an important factor for subsequent population and community dynamics. In particular, intraspecific priority effects (IPEs) allow early arrivers to limit the growth or establishment of later arrivers, even when competitively inferior on a per-capita basis...