2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Ecological stoichiometry for explaining habitat segregations in freshwater copepods

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23570015
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Ecology/Environment
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	MAKINO Wataru 東北大学, 生命科学研究科, 助教 (90372309)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	生態化学量論 / ヒゲナガケンミジンコ / ニッチ分割 / 種間競争
Research Abstract	The effects of algal phosphorus content on the development of freshwater calanoid copepods were investigated for two groups of species (lowland and highland groups). Using chemostats, the cellular C:P ratio of a cryptomonad species was manipulated, and the excess amount of the alga was supplied to copepods, whose postembryonic development was observed individually. With decreases in algal phosphorus content the development of copepods were severely retarded in both of the groups. It was also revealed that the survivorship of individuals in lowland groups was low when temperature was low. Thus the relative importance of temperature may be stronger than that of algal phosphorus content for habitat separations observed between the two groups of copepods.