Abstract
Here we investigate the allocation of resources between growth and reproduction by surveying the dynamics of natural populations of the aquatic detritivorous mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum from two interconnected lakes that differ in trophic state. The size distributions and reproductive output of the snail populations was analyzed monthly by field surveys spanning 3 years, and in a controlled microcosm experiment to evaluate the reproductive potential under laboratory conditions. Snails in the meso-oligotrophic lake showed reduced growth and a smaller size compared to snails in the eutrophic lake. However, the numbers of eggs and nearly-neonates per adult snail did not differ significantly between the two populations. It is speculated that P. antipodarum populations living under meso-oligotrophic conditions may consistently invest more internal energy in reproduction at the expense of growth and that food quantity may be an important driver for macro-invertebrate resource allocation in detrital food webs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-736) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The New Zealand freshwater mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum gained increased interest in the last decades since it has successfully invaded a large number of ecosystems across the world, including Europe, Australia and North America (Frömming 1956; Ponder 1988; Hall et al 2006; Vinson and Baker 2008), and it is increasingly used as a model organism for ecotoxicological studies (e.g. Duft et al 2007; Gust et al 2011; Coulaud et al 2013)
We focused on the relative distribution of internal energy between somatic growth and reproduction by sampling the snail populations over a three year period and analyzing brood pouch content and shell size classes
Population size distribution and reproduction In the meso-oligotrophic lake, the 0.60 mm snails contributed to the population by extended presence, in an irregular, annual pattern (Figure 4, middle panel), while size-distributions followed a regular annual pattern in the eutrophic lake
Summary
The New Zealand freshwater mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum gained increased interest in the last decades since it has successfully invaded a large number of ecosystems across the world, including Europe, Australia and North America (Frömming 1956; Ponder 1988; Hall et al 2006; Vinson and Baker 2008), and it is increasingly used as a model organism for ecotoxicological studies (e.g. Duft et al 2007; Gust et al 2011; Coulaud et al 2013). The mudsnail P. antipodarum is a relatively small (≤ 6 mm) dioecious snail that feeds on detritus by surface scraping (Haynes and Taylor 1984). Aquatic invertebrates that feed on dead organic matter (detritus) often live in environments with limited and variable quantities and qualities of food, and consumer growth and reproduction is well limitation (Neiman et al 2013), and that growth and fecundity are negatively affected by food quality (Tibbets et al 2010; Neiman et al 2013). We report on a three year survey of two populations of P. antipodarum in two interconnected, yet contrasting freshwater lakes: a meso-oligotrophic lake and an eutrophic lake. We focused on the relative distribution of internal energy between somatic growth and reproduction by sampling the snail populations over a three year period and analyzing brood pouch content and shell size classes. The reproductive potential of both populations was tested in an additional laboratory microcosm experiment
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