Does oxygen availability regulate sexual reproduction in local populations of the littoral cladoceran Alonella nana?

Abstract

We investigated sexual reproduction patterns of a ubiquitous littoral cladoceran Alonella nana (Anomopoda, Chydoridae), using ecological and paleoecological approaches to clarify the forcing mechanisms behind its sexual reproduction. Contemporary sampling of A. nana populations in two environmentally different lakes showed abundant sexual reproduction in the lake with eutrophic, oxygen-deficient conditions and scarce gamogenesis in the oligotrophic, well-oxygenated lake. Sediment core studies from the same lakes indicated that comparable sexual reproduction patterns had prevailed for many centuries. However, in eutrophic Lake Hamptrask, A. nana increased its sexual reproduction from 1700 ad onward, consistently with decreasing trend in chironomid-inferred oxygen. The core samples, together with a surface sediment dataset of 25 lakes from southern and central Finland, showed a negative correlation between ephippia of A. nana and winter oxygen, although the surface sediment data per se did not show any significant correlation. When the dataset was scaled locally to include lakes in close proximity in southern Finland, the correlation became clearer. The results imply that the spatial and temporal variations in sexual reproduction of A. nana populations may partly be explained by differences in oxygen levels.