The ghost of herbivory past: slow defence relaxation in the chlorophyte Scenedesmus obliquus

Submitted: 6 December 2011
Accepted: 6 December 2011
Published: 1 August 2009
Abstract Views: 2035
PDF: 640
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

The freshwater chlorophyte Scenedesmus obliquus (Turpin) Kützing produces colonies as an inducible defence against herbivores. We investigated the dynamics of Scenedesmus colony formation and disintegration in response to the density of the herbivorous rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus in large-scale mesocosms. Additional bioassays were performed to investigate Scenedesmus colony disintegration under different light regimes. In the mesocosm experiment, colony formation took place rapidly, but relaxation towards the initial size took relatively long (>10 d) after cessation of herbivory. In the bioassays, in the absence of infochemicals, colonies disintegrated almost immediately in the dark (1-1.5 d), within 4 d under a photoperiod of 16:8 (L:D) and between 8 and 12 days under full light. Colony disintegration times in the mesocosm experiment were substantially longer as compared to treatments with the same photoperiod (L:D 16:8) in the bioassays. So after a peak of herbivory, the 'ghost of herbivory past', i.e. the remaining infochemicals, may continue to induce colony formation, causing an additional lengthening of colony disintegration times and associated fitness costs (higher sedimentation loss rates). This indicates that costs of colony formation are not only important during the induction phase, but may be even more important during the relaxation phase. We compared these sedimentation costs to the costs of herbivory for differently sized Scenedesmus, and found a clear trade-off pattern for these costs.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

VERSCHOOR, Antonie M., Ozan K. BEKMEZCI, Ellen VAN DONK, and Jacobus VIJVERBERG. 2009. “The Ghost of Herbivory Past: Slow Defence Relaxation in the Chlorophyte Scenedesmus Obliquus”. Journal of Limnology 68 (2):327-35. https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2009.327.

List of Cited By :

Crossref logo