The Beauty is a beast: Does leachate from the invasive terrestrial plant affect aquatic food webs?

Invasive alien species are a major threat to ecosystems. Invasive terrestrial plants can produce allelochemicals which suppress native terrestrial biodiversity. However, it is not known if leached allelochemicals from invasive plants growing in riparian zones, such as , also affect freshwater ecosystems.

Pricklier with the proper predator? Predator-induced small-scale changes of spinescence in .

Phenotypic plasticity in defensive traits is a common response of prey organisms to variable and unpredictable predation regimes and risks. Cladocerans of the genus are keystone species in the food web of lentic freshwater bodies and are well known for their ability to express a large variety of inducible morphological defenses in response to invertebrate and vertebrate predator kairomones. The developed defenses render the daphnids less susceptible to predation.

Uncovering the chemistry behind inducible morphological defences in the crustacean Daphnia magna via micro-Raman spectroscopy.

The widespread distribution of Crustacea across every aquatic ecological niche on Earth is enabled due to their exoskeleton's versatile properties. Especially mineralization of the exoskeleton provides protection against diverse environmental threats. Thereby, the exoskeleton of some entomostracans is extremely phenotypically plastic, especially in response to predators.

Predator-specific inducible morphological defenses of a water flea against two freshwater predators.

The expression of inducible morphological defenses in Daphnia in response to a single predator is a well-known phenomenon. However, predator-specific modifications of the same defensive traits as an adaption to different predator regimes is so far only described for Daphnia barbata. It is unknown if this accounts only for this species or if it is a more widespread, general adaptive response in the genus Daphnia.

Phenotypic plasticity of senescence in under predation impact: no ageing acceleration when the perceived risk decreases with age.

Recognising the nature of the predation risk, and responding to it accurately, is crucial to fitness. Yet, even the most accurate adaptive responses to predation risk usually entail costs, both immediate and lifelong. Rooting in life-history theory, we hypothesize that an animal can perceive the nuances of prey size and age selectivity by the predator and modulate its life history accordingly.

Inducible Defenses with a "Twist": Daphnia barbata Abandons Bilateral Symmetry in Response to an Ancient Predator.

Predation is one of the most important drivers of natural selection. In consequence a huge variety of anti-predator defenses have evolved in prey species. Under unpredictable and temporally variable predation pressure, the evolution of phenotypically plastic defensive traits is favored.

Uncovering ultrastructural defences in Daphnia magna--an interdisciplinary approach to assess the predator-induced fortification of the carapace.

The development of structural defences, such as the fortification of shells or exoskeletons, is a widespread strategy to reduce predator attack efficiency. In unpredictable environments these defences may be more pronounced in the presence of a predator. The cladoceran Daphnia magna (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Cladocera) has been shown to develop a bulky morphotype as an effective inducible morphological defence against the predatory tadpole shrimp Triops cancriformis (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Notostraca).

Changes in water chemistry can disable plankton prey defenses.

The effectiveness of antipredator defenses is greatly influenced by the environment in which an organism lives. In aquatic ecosystems, the chemical composition of the water itself may play an important role in the outcome of predator-prey interactions by altering the ability of prey to detect predators or to implement defensive responses once the predator's presence is perceived. Here, we demonstrate that low calcium concentrations (<1.