Under conditions of global warming, organisms are expected to track their thermal preferences, invading new habitats at higher latitudes and altitudes and altering the structure of local communities. To fend off potential invaders, indigenous communities/populations will have to rapidly adapt to the increase in temperature. In this study, we tested if decades of artificial water heating changed the structure of communities and populations of the Daphnia longispina species complex. We compared the species composition of contemporary Daphnia communities inhabiting five lakes heated by power plants and four non-heated control lakes. The heated lakes are ca. 3-4 °C warmer, as all lakes are expected to be by 2100 according to climate change forecasts. We also genotyped subfossil resting eggs to describe past shifts in Daphnia community structure that were induced by lake heating. Both approaches revealed a rapid replacement of indigenous D. longispina and D. cucullata by invader D. galeata immediately after the onset of heating, followed by a gradual recovery of the D. cucullata population. Our findings clearly indicate that, in response to global warming, community restructuring may occur faster than evolutionary adaptation. The eventual recolonisation by D. cucullata indicates that adaptation to novel conditions can be time-lagged, and suggests that the long-term consequences of ecosystem disturbance may differ from short-term observations. Temperature increase, a major component of climate change 1 , is expected to exert a strong direct impact on the functioning of freshwater organisms, e.g., modifying their physiology, development, and/or fitness 2-5. Rising temperatures will also trigger a multitude of indirect effects on aquatic habitats, including alteration of abiotic parameters (e.g., oxygen saturation and ice cover duration) 6,7 and biotic interactions (e.g., changes in primary production, predation intensity, mismatches in the occurrence of interdependent species, and altered hostparasite interaction dynamics) 6,8,9. These changes will have an impact on the performance of individuals, and consequently on the structure and functioning of populations and communities 10,11. Based on the current effects of climate change and models of further warming, it is predicted that many species could be threatened with extinction 12,13. Thus, forecasting species' responses to the warming climate is a timely issue in ecology, evolutionary biology, and environmental protection. According to Bellard and coauthors 14 , there are three non-exclusive types of organismal responses to climate change, namely, alterations in (1) time of occurrence (e.g., shifts in phenology), (2) space (e.g., altered distribution range), and (3) self (i.e., changes in organisms' physiology, not related to spatial or temporal changes). A change

Background: Filamentous cyanobacteria are known to negatively affect the life history of planktonic herbivores through mechanical interference with filtering apparatus. Here, we hypothesise that not only the length but also the thickness of cyanobacterial filaments is an important factor shaping the life history of Daphnia. Results: To test our hypothesis, we cultured Daphnia magna with non-toxin-producing strains of either Aphanizomenon gracile or Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii. The former possesses wide filaments, whereas the latter has thinner filaments. The strain of A. gracile has two morphological forms differing in filament widths. The exposure to the thicker A. gracile filaments caused a stronger body-length reduction in females at maturity and a greater decrease in offspring number than exposure to the thinner C. raciborskii filaments. The width of filaments, however, did not significantly affect the length of newborns. The analysis of mixed thick and thin A. gracile filament width distribution revealed that D. magna reduces the number of thinner filaments, while the proportion of thicker ones increases. Also, the effects of cyanobacterial exudates alone were examined to determine whether the changes in D. magna life history were indeed caused directly by the physical presence of morphologically different filaments and not by confounding effects from metabolite exudation. This experiment demonstrated no negative effects of both A. gracile and C. raciborskii exudates. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrates that the thickness of a cyanobacterial filament might be an important factor in shaping D. magna's life history. At a given biomass, thicker filaments of A. gracile were more detrimental to D. magna than thinner ones of C. raciborskii. There was also a strong interaction between species of the cyanobacterium and filament biomass, where species with thicker filaments and at higher biomass had the strongest negative impact on D. magna life history.

No abstract

Tardigrades are microinvertebrates inhabiting almost all aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems throughout the world. They are known for their ability to enter into cryptobiosis and to survive extreme environmental conditions (e.g. lack of water, very high and low temperatures, high doses of radiation, vacuum space). Thanks to these abilities, tardigrades are excellent model organisms for various types of studies, e.g. ecological, ethological, physiological, astrobiological, biotechnological or medical, or even in integrative taxonomy. For most of these studies well-established tardigrade cultures are essential. Here we present a review of methods/protocols used in tardigrade culturing in the past. Based on this data and on our several years of experience in tardigrade culturing, we tried different methods and developed new ones that seem to be optimal. Here, we propose our own simple protocols for culturing herbivorous, omnivorous and carnivorous eutardigrade species in environmental chambers as well as in room conditions. We also describe methods for culturing rotifers, nematodes and algae, used as food sources for tardigrades. Moreover, many years of tardigrade culturing allowed us to describe the problems that may occur during culturing, explain their causes and propose solutions. We believe that these simple protocols will be very useful for many scientists planning tardigrade applications in their studies.