Intraspecific trait variation alters the outcome of competition in freshwater ciliates.

ABSTRACT: Trait variation among heterospecific and conspecific organisms may substantially affect community and food web dynamics. While the relevance of competition and feeding traits have been widely studied for different consumer species, studies on intraspecific differences are more scarce, partly owing to difficulties in distinguishing different clones of the same species. Here, we investigate how intraspecific trait variation affects the competition between the freshwater ciliates Euplotes octocarinatus and Coleps hirtus in a nitrogen-limited chemostat system. The ciliates competed for the microalgae Cryptomonas sp. (Cry) and Navicula pelliculosa (Nav), and the bacteria present in the cultures over a period of 33 days. We used monoclonal Euplotes

SUBMITTER: Floder S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8328434 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature