Diel horizontal migration of zooplankton: costs and benefits of inhabiting the littoral

By R. Burks, David M. Lodge, Erik Jeppesen, T. Lauridsen. 2002

399 citations recorded by the source corpus.

1. In some shallow lakes, Daphnia and other important pelagic consumers of phytoplankton undergo diel horizontal migration (DHM) into macrophytes or other structures in the littoral zone. Some authors have suggested that DHM reduces predation by fishes on Daphnia and other cladocerans, resulting in a lower phytoplankton biomass in shallow lakes than would occur without DHM. The costs and benefits of DHM, and its potential implications in biomanipulation, are relatively unknown, however. 2. In this review, we compare studies on diel vertical migration (DVM) to assess factors potentially influencing DHM (e.g. predators, food, light, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH). We first provide examples of DHM and examine avoidance by Daphnia of both planktivorous (PL) fishes and predacious invertebrates. 3. We argue that DHM should be favoured when the abundance of macrophytes is high (which reduces planktivory) and the abundance of piscivores in the littoral is sufficient to reduce planktivores. Food in the littoral zone may favour DHM by daphnids, but the quality of these resources relative to pelagic phytoplankton is largely unknown. 4. We suggest that abiotic conditions, such as light, temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH, are less likely to influence DHM than DVM because weaker gradients of these conditions occur horizontally in shallow lakes relative to vertical gradients in deep lakes. 5. Because our understanding of DHM is rudimentary, we highlight potentially important research areas: studying a variety of systems, comparing temporal and spatial scales of DHM in relation to DVM, quantifying positive and negative influences of macrophytes, focusing on the role of invertebrate predation, testing the performance of cladocerans on littoral versus pelagic foods (quantity and quality), investigating the potential influence of temperature, and constructing comprehensive models that can predict the likelihood of DHM. Our ability to biomanipulate shallow lakes to create or maintain the desired clear water state will increase as we learn more about the factors initiating and influencing DHM.

Subfields: Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Nature and Landscape Conservation

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Citations in the corpus

Combined stable isotope and gut contents analysis of food webs in plant‐dominated, shallow lakes (2003, background): “ting into the open water to feed at night (Timms & Moss, 1984; Burks et al., 2002), whereas plant associ-”
Biomanipulation as a restoration tool to combat eutrophication : recent advances and future challenges (2012, background): “…the diurnal refuge potential of aquatic plants for large zooplankton against visual-feeder fishes, which is often seen in temperate shallow lakes (Burks et al., 2002; Timms and Moss, 1984), is almost absent in warm lakes (Iglesias et al., 2007; Meerhoff et al., 2006, 2007b; Tavsanoğlu et al.,…”
Horizontal dynamics of zooplankton in subtropical Lake Blanca (Uruguay) hosting multiple zooplankton predators and aquatic plant refuges (2007, background): “In their review, Burks et al. (2002) did not report examples of DHM in the scenario of both pelagic fish and active-at-night invertebrate predators (e.g. Chaoborus).”
Sub-fossils of cladocerans in the surface sediment of 135 lakes as proxies for community structure of zooplankton, fish abundance and lake temperature (2004, background): “In addition, the zooplankton community varies on both a spatial (vertical and horizontal) and a tem- poral scale (Timms & Moss, 1984; Ringelberg, 1991; Lampert, 1993; Burks et al., 2002).”
An experimental study of habitat choice by Daphnia: plants signal danger more than refuge in subtropical lakes (2006, background): “…2006 The Authors, Journal compilation 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd hypolimnetic refuge (which favours vertical migration), chemical cues from potential predators lead the large-bodied zooplankton to perform diel horizontal migration (DHM; Burks et al., 2002).”
High predation is of key importance for dominance of small-bodied zooplankton in warm shallow lakes: evidence from lakes, fish exclosures and surface sediments (2011, background): “north temperate lakes ( Burks et al., 2002 ), submerged macrophytes are apparently not an efficient daytime refuge for zooplankton in subtropical lakes (Meerhoff et al., 2006), as fish abundance, and thus predation among the plants, is high (Meerhoff et al., 2007a), which enhances the predation risk”
Macrophytes as refuge or risky area for zooplankton: a balance set by littoral predacious macroinvertebrates (2009, background): “Direct predation on zooplankton by epiphytic and benthic invertebrates is a potentially large, and overlooked, cost of DHM (Burks et al., 2002).”
The structuring role of free-floating versus submerged plants in a subtropical shallow lake (2003, background): “Other factors that could explain this pattern are: chemical repellence Lauridsen and Lodge 1996; Burks et al. 2002, an unfavourable physical structure of the root system for animals that live suspended, lack of high quality periphyton food Sondergaard and Moss 1998, and a lower efficiency of the w”
Use of ephippial morphology to assess richness of anomopods: potentials and pitfalls (2004, background): “…of the number of species present over multiple seasons and years (i.e. total richness) requires elaborate sampling campaigns because of the high spatial and temporal variability in zooplankton community composition (Arnott et al. 1998; De Meester et al. 1999; Grover 1999; Burks et al. 2002).”
Can warm climate‐related structure of littoral predator assemblies weaken the clear water state in shallow lakes? (2007, background): “DHM; Timms & Moss, 1984; Burks et al., 2002 ), seems clearly insufficient in subtropical lakes.”
Response of zooplankton to nutrient enrichment and fish in shallow lakes: a pan-European mesocosm experiment (2004, background): “The following data were excluded from analyses: (i) results of fish treatments with the two highest nutrient additions in 1998 in Finland, owing to the complete mortality of fish in those mesocosms; (ii) results from Sweden in 1998 because heavy storms destroyed the mesocosms; (iii) the Netherlands ”