High local trait variability in a globally invasive cyanobacterium

Abstract

Abstract During the last couple of decades, invasive species have become a worldwide problem in many freshwater systems. Besides higher plants and animals, microbes, in particular the potentially toxic cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, has attracted increasing attention, due to its spread towards temperate zones of the northern and southern hemisphere. A number of advantageous functional traits and a high intraspecific plasticity have been suggested to explain its invasion success. The aim of this study was to examine intraspecific functional trait variability in 12 different isolates of C. raciborskii originating from different lakes in an invaded region in Northeast Germany. We measured growth rate, C:N:P ratios, chlorophyll‐a content and the abundance of heterocysts under nutrient‐replete and phosphorus‐limited conditions. Moreover, the isolate‐specific morphology and grazing losses by an herbivorous rotifer, as a top‐down force, were studied. DNA fingerprinting revealed that all isolates were genetically different. C. raciborskii exhibited a large variability in all measured traits among isolates. The C:P, N:P and Chl‐a:C ratios differed by a factor of two or more. The trait variability among isolates was higher under nutrient‐replete conditions, except for the C:P ratio, which varied most during phosphorus limitation. The susceptibility to grazing, calculated as maximum ingestion rates of the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus on C. raciborskii, varied most among isolates, but was not related to any of the measured physiological or morphological traits, i.e. no trade‐off was found. Ecological and genetic clustering did not match, indicating that the genetic relationship based on DNA fingerprinting did not cover ecological differences. Our results show a high trait variability within locally occurring and partly co‐occurring C. raciborskii isolates. No overall trade‐offs between the measured functional traits were found. This demonstrates the ecological relevance of linking multiple traits, e.g. competitive and consumptive. Furthermore, this study emphasises the importance of analysing more than one strain of a species, as different strains show different trait values potentially relevant for their invasibility and the field of general trait‐based ecology.