ZOOPLANKTON

ECOPHYSIOLOGY
Dr ir umi zakiyah, msi

DEFINITION

Zooplankton are organisms that have animallike traits

They float, drift or weakly swim in the water
comes from the Greek word planktos which
means wanderer or drifter
encompass a wide range of both unicellular
and multicellular animals
most are heterotrophs
Some may also be fully or partially
photosynthetic - gaining their energy as plants
do, from sunlight eg. dinoflagellates

Organisms that live in aquatic environments

face certain challenges that their terrestrial
counterparts do not
differences is the motion of the fluid medium,
which presents opportunities and drawbacks
that are unique to animals and plants that
live suspended in the water column
enhanced dispersal of the population
achieved at a relatively low energy cost
high gene flow among dispersed populations
readily expand into new habitats

CLASSIFICATION

Phylogeny
Phytoplankton
Zooplankton
ichtyoplankton

Taxonomy
Size
Microzooplankton
Mesozoolankton
Macrozooplankton

Relative length of life cycle

Holoplankton
Meroplankton

ECOPHYSIOLOGY

ECO IS FROM ECOLOGY which means

interaction between organism and their
environments
PHYSIOLOGY means branch of biology
that deals with the functions and
activities of life or of living matter (as
organs, tissues, or cells) and of the
physical and chemical phenomena
involved

Study of the functioning of living organisms or

their constituent tissues or cells. Physiology
was usually considered separately from
anatomy until the development of highpowered microscopes made it clear that
structure and function were inseparable at the
cellular and molecular level.
Physiological processes are dynamic; cells
change their function in response to changes
in the composition of their local environment,
and the organism responds to alterations in
both its internal and external environment.

Ecophysiology means

Physiological condition that related to the

ecological state
In term of :
feeding,
reproduction,
Vertical migration
Population dynamic
Predation
Cyclomorphosis
Trophic importance

CHARACTERISTIC

Limited Power Of Locomotions

Suspended In The WatER
Denser Than Water, And Constantly Sink By
Gravity To Lower Depths
Dominated By Four Major Groups Of Animals:
Protozoa, Rotifers, And Two Subclasses Of The
Crustacea, The Cladocerans And Copepods.
Often Move Extensively In Quiescent Water
the rotifers, cladoceran and copepod

microcrustaceans, insect larvae

FEEDING

Filtration of particles is the dominant means

of food collection by rotifers and
cladocerans.
Filtering rates tend to increase with both
increasing body length and increasing
temperatures
Size of particles ingested is generally
proportional to body size
Among cladocerans, the feeding rates
commonly stabilize or decrease as
concentrations of food particles increase

The effectiveness of zooplankton grazing

varies greatly seasonally
Throughout much of the year, zooplankton
grazing only filters a small proportion of the
water volume (<15% per day)
At certain times of the year, grazing can
remove large portions of the phytoplankton
and can cause marked reduction in
phytoplankton productivity

Algal species succession can also be altered

by intensive, selective (usually size specific)
grazing and concommitant regeneration of
nutrients
Certain algae can survive gut passage and
their growth can be enhanced by contact
with high nutrient levels within the gut of
zooplankton
Assimilation efficiency is variable, but is
usually less than 50%

Efficiency of assimilation increases

somewhat with higher temperatures and
decreases markedly with increasing food
concentrations
Food quality also influences assimilation
efficiencies
Rates of assimilation are low when
zooplankton are feeding on detritus particles,
higher with bacteria, and generally highest
when they are feeding on algae of
acceptable size and type

Much of autotrophic production is not

utilized by herbivorous zooplankton
enters detrital pathways as
nonpredatory particulate and
dissolved organic matter
Although particulate detritus has less
energy content than living algae,
detritus often augments the diet of
suspension-feeding zooplankton

RE-PRODUCTION

The production rate (=net productivity) of

zooplankton is the sum of all biomass
produced in growth
including gametes and exuviae of moltin
less maintenance losses from
respiration and excretion
Efficiency of assimilation is nearly
always less than 50%.

Assimilated energy expended in respiration

is usually less than 50%;
the remainder is used for growth and
reproduction
Assimilation and respiration rates generally
increase at higher trophic levels, and
production decreases
Emigration (e.g., outflow losses) and
immigration from streams and other lakes of
zooplankton are usually negligible

A general, positive correlation exists between the

rates of production of phytoplankton and of
zooplankton
The productivity of suspension-feeding
zooplankton is higher than that of predaceous
zooplankton
Separation of the niche hyperspace with relatively
small regions of species overlap
minimizes interspecific competition and contribute
to the large diversity of population interactions
that have evolved to permit coexistence in
limnetic zooplankton communities

Predation by fishes and size

selectivity

Planktivorous fish can be important in

regulating the abundance and size
structure of zooplankton populations
Prey are visually se- lected, in most
cases, on an individual basis
although the gill rakers of certain fish
collect some zooplankton as water
passes through the mouth and across
the gills

Planktivorous fish select large zooplankters

and can eliminate large cladocerans
When size selection by fish is not in effect,
and when large zooplankters are present
smaller-sized zooplankton are generally not
found to co-occur with the larger forms
The cause is likely a result of size-selective
predation of smaller zooplankton by
invertebrates (copepods, phantom midge
larvae, and predaceous Cladocera)

VERTICAL MIGRATION AND SPATIAL

DISTRIBUTION

Many zooplankton, particularly the Cladocera,

exhibit marked diurnal vertical migrations
The adaptive significance of diurnal migrations
is unclear but likely evolved as a mechanism to
avoid predation by fish
much of which is a visual process requiring light
Most species migrate upward from deeper
strata to more surficial regions as darkness
approaches and return to the deeper areas at
dawn

The lower vertical boundary of

zooplanktonic filter feeding was found
to be closely defined by the 1 mg/l
isopleth of DO concentration
Filtering and respiration rates decrease
rapidly at oxygen concentrations below
3 mg/l
Grazing rates of suspension feeders
are usually several times greater during
the dark period when they have
migrated to surface strata.

The horizontal spatial distribution of

zooplankton in lakes is often uneven and
patchy
Pelagial cladocerans and copepods also
migrate away from littoral areas (avoidance
of shore movements) by behavioral
swimming responses to angular light
distributions
In many cases, nonrandom dispersion of
zooplankton is caused by water movements
in particular Langmuir circulations and
metalimnetic entrainment of epilimnetic water

CYCLOMORPHOSIS AND
PREDATION

Seasonal polymorphism, or cyclomorphosis,

is found among many zooplankton, but is
most conspicuous among the Cladocera
Adaptive significance of cyclomorphic growth
likely centers on reducing predation by
allowing continued growth of peripheral
transparent structures without enlarging the
central portion of the body visible to fish

Small cladocerans that increase size by

cyclomorphic growth reduce capture
success by invertebrate predators like
copepods
combination of environmental parameters
has been shown to induce internal growth
factors (hormones) that influence
differential growth
increased temperature, turbulence,
photoperiod, and food enhance
cyclomorphosis in daphnid cladocerans

Changes in rotifer growth form include:

Elongation in relation to body width
enlargement, reduction in size
production of lateral spines which

reduce predation success

Cyclomorphosis is lacking in copepods
by means of rapid, evasive swimming
movements, can defend themselves
better from invertebrate predators than
can most rotifers and cladocerans.

TROPHIC

ABUNDANCE

Wetzel, 1983:
Ciliated protozoans and rotifers become more important

in the zooplankton among eutrophic, subtropical lakes .

Although nearly all Protozoa are aerobic, a majority can
grow very well even when oxygen concentrations are
very low. This microaerophilic ability is conspicuous
among the planktonic and benthic ciliates, and is
attested to by their major development in organic-rich
and polluted waters. Populations of ciliates often
develop in strata greatly reduced in or devoid of oxygen
in which bacterial populations tend to be dense.

As lakes become more eutrophic, a greater

proportion of the phytoplankton biomass and
productivity often results from large algae
(mostly colonial or filamentous). The larger
algae interfere with food collection to a
greater extent in larger cladocerans, causing
reduced growth and fecundity, than in smaller
cladoceran species that feed on small
particles. Such interspecific competition, in
addition to size-selective predation, could
contribute to reduction of larger zooplankton.

Carney, 1990:
In mesotrophic systems edible and nutritious
algae are in higher concentrations than in more
nutrient-poor waters, and the proportion of these
algae is greater than in more eutrophic systems.
In these intermediate systems there are also
sufficient concentrations of cladoceran herbivores.
A number of species in the genus Daphnia have
particularly high per capita filtering rates.
Cladocerans also regenerate nitrogen and
phosphorus in the soluble available forms. This
enhances phytoplankton productivity, speeds
nutrient cycling, and tightens coupling between
these trophic levels

In oligotrophic systems concentrations of edible algae

are lower, so zooplankton concentrations are also lower.
Perhaps as important, there is a shift in dominance to
copepods which have lower per capita filtering rates and
excrete faecal pellets rather than dissolved nitrogen and
phosphorus. All these factors contribute to reduced
coupling at this interface. At the other end of the
spectrum, in very eutrophic lakes and ponds inedible
algae (for example relatively large filamentous bluegreens and greens) become important. This may
represent a state in the coevolutionary process in which,
following substantial grazing impact and natural
selection, these algal species have "won". In any case,
both grazing pressure and nutrient regeneration are
lower in these systems.

Percentage of production of Rotifer, Cladoceran,

and Copepod Zooplankton in various lakes, from
oligotrophic to eutrophic (Wetzel, 1983):

Some characteristic zooplankton

groups, Ryding and Rast, 1989, and
Standard Methods, 18th Ed. 1992:

A list of the more common pelagic

zooplankters found:

THREATS

Variations in water quality such as changes in

nutrient levels, conductivity, temperature or pH,
can lead to changes in species composition and
abundance.
Temporary drying out or freezing of water bodies
or increases in water temperature, present
challenging conditions for zooplankton. Often it is
only the resting egg stages that survive these
periods.
Exotic invading species, such as Daphnia pulex,
may out-compete native species, which could
result in irreversible changes in food webs