Facing the green threat
- Every ecosystem shows multiple levels of species interactions, which are often difficult to isolate and to classify regarding their specific nature. For most of the observed interactions, it comes down to either competition or consumption. The modes of consumption are various and defined by the nature of the consumed organism, e.g., carnivory, herbivory, as well as the extent of the consumption, e.g., grazing, parasitism. While the majority of consumers are animals, carnivorous plants can also pose a threat to arthropods. Water fleas of the family Daphniidae are keystone species in many lentic ecosystems. As most abundant filter feeders, they link the primary production to higher trophic levels. As a response to the high predatory pressures, water fleas have evolved various inducible defenses against animal predators. Here we show the first example, to our knowledge, in \(\textit {Ceriodaphnia dubia}\) of such inducible defenses of an animal against a coexisting plant predator, i.e., the carnivorous bladderwort (\(\textit {Utricularia x neglecta }\) Lehm, Lentibulariaceae). When the bladderwort is present, \(\textit {C. dubia}\) shows changes in morphology, life history and behavior. While the morphological and behavioral adaptations improve \(\textit {C. dubia's}\) survival rate in the presence of this predator, the life-history parameters likely reflect trade-offs for the defense.
Author: | Sebastian KruppertORCiDGND, Martin HorstmannORCiDGND, Linda C. WeissORCiDGND, Elena KonopkaGND, Nadja KubitzaGND, Simon PoppingaORCiDGND, Anna WestermeierORCiDGND, Thomas SpeckORCiDGND, Ralph TollrianORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-102260 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23126474 |
Parent Title (English): | International journal of molecular sciences |
Subtitle (English): | a water flea's defenses against a carnivorous plant |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Place of publication: | Basel, Schweiz |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2023/08/25 |
Date of first Publication: | 2022/06/09 |
Publishing Institution: | Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek |
Tag: | Open Access Fonds Daphnia; carnivorous plant; inducible defenses |
Volume: | 23 |
Issue: | 12, Article 6474 |
First Page: | 6474-1 |
Last Page: | 6474-17 |
Note: | Article Processing Charge funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Ruhr-Universität Bochum. |
Institutes/Facilities: | Lehrstuhl für Evolutionsökologie und Biodiversität der Tiere |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Biowissenschaften, Biologie, Biochemie |
open_access (DINI-Set): | open_access |
faculties: | Fakultät für Biologie und Biotechnologie |
Licence (English): | Creative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International |