Ref ID : 635
Peter L. Starkweather and Kenneth G. Bogdan; Detrital feeding in natural zooplankton communities: Discrimination between live and dead algal foods. Hydrobiologia 73:83-85, 1980
Reprint
In File
Notes
Freshwater zooplankton species differ in their consumption of live and dead algal cells when tested in situ. Using isotopically-labeled living and heat-killed Chlamydomonas reinharditi as models for phytoplankton and detrital seston, respectively, we tested differential feeding on these foods by 3 rotifers and 2 microcrustaceans. Keratella cochlearis selectively feeds on 'detrital' materials while 2 sympatric rotifer species, Conochilus dossuarius and Kellicottia bostoniensis show no ability to discriminate between the living and dead foods. Both the copepod Diaptomus spatulocrenatus and a cladoceran, Bosmina sp., differentially consume living cells.