Opportunistic vs selective feeding strategies of zooplankton under changing environmental conditions.

ABSTRACT: The plankton community consists of diverse interacting species. The estimation of species interactions in nature is challenging. There is limited knowledge on how plankton interactions are influenced by environmental conditions because of limited understanding of zooplankton feeding strategies and factors affecting trophic interactions. In this study, we used DNA-metabarcoding to investigate trophic interactions in mesozooplankton predators and the influence of prey availability on their feeding behavior. We found that mesozooplankton feeding strategies vary within species across an environmental gradient. Some species, such as Temora longicornis consistently used a selective strategy, while diets of Centropages hamatus and Acartia spp. varied between stations,

SUBMITTER: Serandour B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10066809 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar-Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature