Temporal, spatial, and between-host comparisons of patterns of parasitism in lake zooplankton.

In nature, multiple parasite species infect multiple host species and are influenced by processes operating across different spatial and temporal scales. Data sets incorporating these complexities offer exciting opportunities to examine factors that shape epidemics. We present a method using generalized linear mixed models in a multilevel modeling framework to analyze patterns of variances and correlations in binomially distributed prevalence data.

Ontogeny of digestion in Daphnia: implications for the effectiveness of algal defenses.

Models of feeding and digestion predict that increased body size should result in longer gut passage time and improved assimilation efficiency. We examined the implications of digestion theory for size-structured interactions in a generalist zooplankton herbivore by studying the relationships between body size, ingestion rate, gut passage time (GPT), assimilation efficiency (AE), and growth rate in a clone of Daphnia pulex feeding on seven taxa of green algae that differed in digestibility. We also tested the effect of varying food concentration on GPT and AE while keeping body size constant.

Resource ecology of virulence in a planktonic host-parasite system: an explanation using dynamic energy budgets.

Parasites steal resources that a host would otherwise direct toward its own growth and reproduction. We use this fundamental notion to explain resource-dependent virulence in a fungal parasite (Metschnikowia)-zooplankton host (Daphnia) system and in a variety of other disease systems with invertebrate hosts. In an experiment, well-fed hosts died faster and produced more parasites than did austerely fed ones.

Friendly competition: evidence for a dilution effect among competitors in a planktonic host-parasite system.

The "dilution effect" concept in disease ecology offers the intriguing possibility that clever manipulation of less competent hosts could reduce disease prevalence in populations of more competent hosts. The basic concept is straightforward: host species vary in suitability (competence) for parasites, and disease transmission decreases when there are more incompetent hosts interacting with vectors or removing free-living stages of a parasite. However, host species also often interact with each other in other ecological ways, e.

Quality matters: resource quality for hosts and the timing of epidemics.

Epidemiologists increasingly realize that species interactions (e.g. selective predation) can determine when epidemics start and end.

Parasite-mediated disruptive selection in a natural Daphnia population.

Background: A mismatch has emerged between models and data of host-parasite evolution. Theory readily predicts that parasites can promote host diversity through mechanisms such as disruptive selection. Yet, despite these predictions, empirical evidence for parasite-mediated increases in host diversity remains surprisingly scant.

Phylogenetic characterization and prevalence of "Spirobacillus cienkowskii," a red-pigmented, spiral-shaped bacterial pathogen of freshwater Daphnia species.

Microscopic examination of the hemolymph from diseased daphniids in 17 lakes in southwestern Michigan and five rock pools in southern Finland revealed the presence of tightly coiled bacteria that bore striking similarities to the drawings of a morphologically unique pathogen, "Spirobacillus cienkowskii," first described by Elya Metchnikoff more than 100 years ago. The uncultivated microbe was identified as a deeply branching member of the Deltaproteobacteria through phylogenetic analyses of two conserved genes: the 16S rRNA-encoding gene (rrs) and the beta-subunit of topoisomerase (gyrB). Fluorescence in situ hybridization confirmed that the rRNA gene sequence originated from bacteria with the tightly coiled morphology.

Eating yourself sick: transmission of disease as a function of foraging ecology.

Species interactions may profoundly influence disease outbreaks. However, disease ecology has only begun to integrate interactions between hosts and their food resources (foraging ecology) despite that hosts often encounter their parasites while feeding. A zooplankton-fungal system illustrated this central connection between foraging and transmission.

Warmer does not have to mean sicker: temperature and predators can jointly drive timing of epidemics.

Ecologists and epidemiologists worry that global warming will increase disease prevalence. These fears arise because several direct and indirect mechanisms link warming to disease, and because parasite outbreaks are increasing in many taxa. However, this outcome is not a foregone conclusion, as physiological and community-interaction-based mechanisms may inhibit epidemics at warmer temperatures.

Spatial heterogeneity of daphniid parasitism within lakes.

Spatially explicit models show that local interactions of hosts and parasites can strongly influence invasion and persistence of parasites and can create lasting spatial patchiness of parasite distributions. These predictions have been supported by experiments conducted in two-dimensional landscapes. Yet, three-dimensional systems, such as lakes, ponds, and oceans, have received comparatively little attention from epidemiologists.

Incidence of diapause varies among populations of Daphnia pulicaria.

Dormancy is a common way in which organisms survive environmental conditions that would be lethal to the active individual. However, while dormant, individuals forego reproduction. Hence theory suggests an optimal time in which to enter dormancy, depending on risks associated with both remaining active and entering dormancy.

NATURAL GENETIC VARIATION OF LIFE SPAN, REPRODUCTION, AND JUVENILE GROWTH IN DAPHNIA.

The evolutionary theory of senescence predicts that high extrinsic mortality in natural populations should select for accelerated reproductive investment and shortened life span. Here, we test the theory with natural populations of the Daphnia pulex-pulicaria species complex, a group of freshwater zooplankton that spans an environmental gradient of habitat permanence. We document substantial genetic variation in demographic life-history traits among parent and hybrid populations of this complex.

Performance trade-off across a natural resource gradient.

An important environmental factor determining both phytoplankton and zooplankton community composition is lake depth and thermal stratification. However, there is little information on how the interaction between zooplankton grazers and their phytoplankton food changes along an environmental gradient of lake depth. We contrasted resource availability for daphniid zooplankton populations living in two shallow, unstratified lakes and in two deep, stratified lakes using a novel growth bioassay.

Habitat use and ecological specialization within lake Daphnia populations.

Many species of planktonic cladocerans display substantial variation in habitat use (mean depth and diel vertical migration), both among and within populations. We examined whether clonal segregation and specialization contributes to such behavioral variation within several lake populations of the cladoceran, Daphnia pulicaria. Electrophoretic and quantitative genetic analysis of clonal lines isolated from different depths at night revealed that clonal habitat specialization was common.

GENETIC, ACCLIMATIZATION, AND ONTOGENETIC EFFECTS ON HABITAT SELECTION BEHAVIOR IN DAPHNIA PULICARIA.

Daphnia pulicaria from three different populations were observed to express within-population variation in habitat-choice behavior in field assays. Individuals from different habitats (i.e.

Contrasting patterns of body size for Daphnia species that segregate by habitat.

We investigate how body size of two coexisting Daphnia species varies among 7 lakes that represent a gradient of predation risk. The two species segregate vertically in stratified lakes; D. galeata mendotae is typically smaller and more eplimnetic than D.

Coherence and horizontal movements of pathces of Holopedium gibberum (Cladocera).

The horizontal spatial dynamics of Holopedium gibberum in a small lake was followed during two summers. H. gibberum individuals aggregated into a single patch measured in tens of meters.