Comparison of life-history parameters and effectiveness in competition with Moina macrocopa between two Keratella tropica morphs

Abstract

Competition and predation are the two major biotic interactions in zooplankton community. Various rotifer species exhibit polymorphism in lorica and spine morphology in the presence of predators and competitors, which effectively increases their defence competition capacity. This study compared life-history parameters between long-spined morph (LSM) and short-spined morph (SSM) of Keratella tropica at three temperatures. The results showed that both morphs showed significantly higher intrinsic rate of population increase at 25 °C than those at 20 °C and 30 °C. The intrinsic rate of population increase was significantly lower in LSM than SSM at 25 °C and 30 °C, and the net reproductive rate was significantly lower in LSM than SSM at 30 °C. These results suggested that K. tropica had cost on development of long spines, which, however, was dependent on temperature. Moreover, the competition outcome of LSM and SSM with Moina macrocopa were investigated at three densities of Scenedesmus obliquus (0.5 × 106, 1.0 × 106 and 2.0 × 106 cells/mL) and three initial densities of M. macrocopa (0.1, 0.3 and 0.9 ind./mL), revealing that both LSM and SSM populations decreased significantly at all tested algal densities and Moina levels. LSM showed higher population growth rate than SSM at lower algal density (0.5 × 106 cells/mL) and higher Moina densities (0.3 and 0.9 ind./mL), which suggested that LSM could be more effective to defend M. macrocopa. Three-way analysis of variance showed no significant effects of algal density on population growth rate of K. tropica, but interaction between algal density and M. macrocopa density significantly affected its population growth rate.