Increases of Chamber Height and Base Diameter Have Contrasting Effects on Grazing Rate of Two Cladoceran Species: Implications for Microcosm Studies.

ABSTRACT: Aquatic microcosm studies often increase either chamber height or base diameter (to increase water volume) to test spatial ecology theories such as "scale" effects on ecological processes, but it is unclear whether the increase of chamber height or base diameter have the same effect on the processes, i.e., whether the effect of the shape of three-dimensional spaces is significant. We orthogonally manipulated chamber height and base diameter and determined swimming activity, average swimming velocity and grazing rates of the cladocerans Daphnia magna and Moina micrura (on two algae Scenedesmus quadricauda and Chlorella vulgaris; leading to four aquatic algae-cladoceran systems in total) under different microcosm conditions. Across all the four aquatic systems, increasing chamber height at a

SUBMITTER: Pan Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4537195 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature