Persistence Ability of Daphnia
This research addresses the colonization sequence of several species of crustacean zooplankton (Crustacea; Cladocera) found in Inland Sea Lake located at Kickapoo State Park ( Vermilion Co., IL.). Daphnia are small fresh water Crustacea found in lakes and ponds in many countries world-wide. They are known to produce diapausing eggs that remain viable for many years, even after drying and freezing. As a result, through dispersal these eggs are the primary way in which the aquatic invertebrates move from lake to lake. Once a particular species of Daphnia invades a lake, most of the diapausing eggs that are produced sink to the bottom of the lake, creating egg banks in the mud sediment that can last for centuries. These egg banks provide links to past communities when sediment cores are taken from the lake and brought into the laboratory for analysis. My research is examining how populations and communities may have changed over time by reconstructing patterns and incubating viable eggs until they hatch. Lake water samples were also taken twice a month to compare current community populations as opposed to the number of eggs found and the species that are identified within the sediment. I have concluded that Daphnia pulicaria and Daphnia ambigua are the oldest species within Inland Sea Lake. However D. pulicaria is currently not very abundant in the water column, especially compared to D. ambigua. Inland Sea will have to be compared to the other lakes within Kickapoo State Park to determine the order in which each species arrived and the most likely colonization source for each species. The entire project will take approximately five ears to complete.
School:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department:
Animal Biology
Research Advisor:
Carla Cáceres
Department of Research Advisor:
Animal Biology
Year of Publication:
2003