Differential temperature sensitivity of two cladoceran species to resource variation during a blue-green algal bloom

Abstract

The sensitivity of life-table parameters of two cladoceran zooplankton to slight, natural variations in temperature was determined during the onset of a midsummer blue-green algal bloom in a large turbid reservoir (Lake Texoma, Oklahoma, Texas). Prior to the onset of blue-green algae, cohorts of Ceriodaphnia lacustris incubated at ambient epilimnion temperatures (27–30 °C) had higher individual somatic and population growth rates, an earlier age at first reproduction, and shorter life-spans than cohorts incubated at a constant 25 °C. As blue-green algae became abundant, Ceriodaphnia growth rates were reduced more dramatically at ambient temperatures than at 25 °C, suggesting that a temperature–resource interaction was important to determination of somatic growth rate, age of first reproduction, and population growth rate. Ceriodaphnia populations declined in Lake Texoma as blue-green algae became abundant. Diaphanosoma leuchtenbergianum, which was abundant throughout the period of blue-green algal dominance, did not show the temperature–resource interaction found for Ceriodaphnia. Temperature–resource interactions have been hypothesized to determine seasonal change in zooplankton community structure; this study provides experimental evidence of demographic consequences in natural populations of one kind of common temperature–resource interaction.