No abstract

The evolutionary history of freshwater zooplankton is stiU relatively unknown. However, studies of the microcrustacean Daphia have revealed interesting patterns; the daphniids that dominate ponds and lakes in the northern hemisphere may have recent origins, likely associated w i t h the glacial advances and retreats during the Pleistocene. Moreover, they form species complexes that actively engage in hybridization and introgression. The present study examines the phylogenetic relationships among circumarctic members of the Dophnia puhx complex, through the analysis of sequence diversity in 498 nt of the ND5 mitochondrial gene. Our results suggest that the complex is composed of three major clades, two of which are subdivided into at least eight different lineages. Clearly, species in the complex show genetic discontinuity. Many lineages originated during the Pleistocene, but at least three lineages diverged during the Pliocene. Two taxa (0. pulex, D. pulkaria), thought to be broadly distributed in the northern hemisphere, are shown to be endemic to single continents. In general, the diversification of the pulex complex is characterized by rapidly dispersed lineages spanning enormous distances and also by endemism in temperate areas. Gene flow among lineages from the temperate region of different continents are restricted to rare intercontinental migrations across a polar bridge followed by convergent morphological evolution. 0 1998 The Linnean Society of London ADDITIONAL

The factors inducing male offspring and the mechanism of sex—ratio adjustment were investigated in Daphnia magna, a cyclically parthenogenetic cladoceran (Crustacea). Laboratory experiments were conducted on individual animals living in flow—through chambers, to separate the effects of various density—dependent factors. Fluctuating food levels had no effects on offspring sex when starvation was not severe. Water from crowded populations of different Daphnia species contained substances that induced up to 43% male broods. The chemically mediated crowding effect was detectable under conditions representing a low population density, implying that animals responded to their own metabolites. Daphnia species differed in their inducing effects, and in one case (water from D. pulex) strong male offspring induction was associated with growth inhibition. A short daylength was also demonstrated to induce male offspring effectively. Evidence was found to support a mechanism of sex—ratio regulation that implies a regular alternation of brood sex, resulting in a sex ratio close to 1/2, the expected optimum ratio. Even individual mothers adjusted the sex ratio of their offspring within a sequence of seven broods. No resting eggs were formed in the experiments, indicating that formation of male offspring and resting eggs are independently controlled, possibly by distinct sets of environmental cues.

A taxonomic reappraisal of the European Daphnia longispina complex (Crustacea, Cladocera, Anomopoda). -Zoologica Scripta, 37 , 507-519. The Daphnia longispina complex contains some of the most common water flea species in the northern hemisphere, and has been a model organism for many ecological and evolutionary studies. Nevertheless, the systematics and nomenclature of this group, in particular its Palaearctic members, have been in flux for the past 150 years; this hinders the correct interpretation of scientific results and promotes the erroneous use of species names. We revise the systematics of this species complex based on mitochondrial sequence variation (12S rDNA and COI) of representative populations across Europe, with a special focus on samples from type localities of the respective taxa. Combining genetic evidence and morphological assignments of analysed individuals, we propose a comprehensive revision of the European members of the D. longispina complex. We show that D. hyalina and D. rosea morphotypes have evolved several times independently, and we find no evidence to maintain these morphotypes as distinct biological species. Alpine individuals described as D. zschokkei are conspecific with the above-mentioned lineage. We suggest that this morphologically and ecologically plastic but genetically uniform hyalina-rosea-zschokkei clade should be identified as D. longispina (O. F. Müller, 1776). The valid name of Fennoscandian individuals labelled D. longispina sensu stricto in the recent literature is D. lacustris G. O. Sars, 1862. Additionally, we discovered another divergent lineage of this group, likely an undescribed species, in southern Norway. Our results present a solution for several prevailing taxonomic problems in the genus Daphnia , and have broad implications for interpretation of biogeographical patterns, and ecological and evolutionary studies.

Niche and neutral processes drive community assembly and metacommunity dynamics, but their relative importance might vary with the spatial scale. The contribution of niche processes is generally expected to increase with increasing spatial extent at a higher rate than that of neutral processes. However, the extent to what community composition is limited by dispersal (usually considered a neutral process) over increasing spatial scales might depend on the dispersal capacity of composing species. To investigate the mechanisms underlying the distribution and diversity of species known to have great powers of dispersal (hundreds of kilometres), we analysed the relative importance of niche processes and dispersal limitation in determining beta‐diversity patterns of aquatic plants and cladocerans over regional (up to 300 km) and continental (up to 3300 km) scales. Both taxonomic groups were surveyed in five different European regions and presented extremely high levels of beta‐diversity, both within and among regions. High beta‐diversity was primarily explained by species replacement (turnover) rather than differences in species richness (i.e. nestedness). Abiotic and biotic variables were the main drivers of community composition. Within some regions, small‐scale connectivity and the spatial configuration of sampled communities explained a significant, though smaller, fraction of compositional variation, particularly for aquatic plants. At continental scale (among regions), a significant fraction of compositional variation was explained by a combination of spatial effects (exclusive contribution of regions) and regionally‐structured environmental variables. Our results suggest that, although dispersal limitation might affect species composition in some regions, aquatic plant and cladoceran communities are not generally limited by dispersal at the regional scale (up to 300 km). Species sorting mediated by environmental variation might explain the high species turnover of aquatic plants and cladocerans at regional scale, while biogeographic processes enhanced by dispersal limitation among regions might determine the composition of regional biotas.