Spatial and temporal patterns of zooplankton standing biomass and production in Lake Malawi

Irvine, Kenneth; Waya, Revania

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-1622-2_18

Cited by 21 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Other studies have also found zooplankton biomass in Lake Malawi to be highly variable on time scales of weeks to years, although there is a tendency for abundance to be lowest in the OctoberNovember period when thermal stratification is being reestablished (Fig. 2B), and higher in the mixing season and the rainy season (December-January) (Twombly, 1983;Irvine and Waya, 1999), similar to our observations in this study.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…We did not measure lipid content of zooplankton samples, but if there were significant inter-species differences, this would probably be reflected in different C:N ratios, which we did not observe. Likewise, there is little evidence that D. excisum depth distribution differs from that of copepods (Irvine and Waya, 1999).…”

Section: Plankton Food Web Structurementioning

confidence: 96%

“…It is dominated by two species of calanoids, two species of cyclopoids, two species of cladocera, the midge Chaoborus edulis Edwards and the larvae of the cyprinid Engraulicypris sardella (Irvine and Waya, 1999). Using gut content analysis, Irvine et al (1995) classified the calanoid copepod Tropodiaptomus cunningtoni (Sars) as a herbivore while the cyclopoid Mesocyclops aequatorialis aequatorialis (Kiefer) is believed to feed on nauplii, early stages of copepodites and small T. cunningtoni (Irvine and Waya, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Temporal trends of phytoplankton and zooplankton stable isotope composition in tropical Lake Malawi

Ngochera

Bootsma

2011

Journal of Great Lakes Research

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Plankton Food Web Structurementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Temporal trends of phytoplankton and zooplankton stable isotope composition in tropical Lake Malawi

Ngochera

Bootsma

2011

Journal of Great Lakes Research

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“…However, reduction of the risk of starvation in prey-poor environments could also select for small broods of large offspring (29). This might apply to cichlids because the pelagic zone of the African Great Lakes is relatively oligotrophic compared with the productive inshore habitats (53,54). If so, this would suggest that the evolution of large offspring size had different causes among rocky-shore and pelagic cichlids.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parallel life history evolution in mouthbrooding cichlids from the African Great Lakes

Duponchelle

Paradis

Ribbink

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The existence of ancient deep-water lakes provides an opportunity to study the independent adaptation of aquatic organisms to pelagic, benthic, and rocky shore habitats. With improving resolution of their phylogenetic relationships, the many cichlid fish species endemic to the African Great Lakes Malawi, Tanganyika, and Victoria provide a significant resource for the comparative study of such evolutionary processes. Here, we show that cichlid lineages colonizing rocky shores and pelagic habitats in the different lakes have independently evolved larger eggs and lower fecundities than benthic lineages, suggesting parallel adaptive life-history evolution. By contrast, other pelagic teleost fishes in both marine and freshwater habitats, including African lakes, typically produce large numbers of very small eggs. Our results also suggest that decreased fecundity and increased egg size not only occurred independently in each lake but occurred independently in the colonization of rocky and pelagic habitats.parallelism ͉ phylogenetically controlled comparative analysis ͉ phylogeny

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“…Visual acuity is also key for capturing prey items, with some of the smallest being zooplankton. Zooplankton of Lake Malawi vary in size from 200 to over 1000 µm (Irvine and Waya, 1999). Similar acuity calculations can be used to determine that M. zebra can resolve a zooplankter from its background at distances of 10 to 50 cm.…”

Section: Topographic Distribution Of Ganglion Cells and Spatial Resolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retinal specialization through spatially varying cell densities and opsin coexpression in cichlid fish

Dalton

Busserolles

Marshall

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The distinct behaviours of animals and the varied habitats in which animals live place different requirements on their visual systems. A trade-off exists between resolution and sensitivity, with these properties varying across the retina. Spectral sensitivity, which affects both achromatic and chromatic (colour) vision, also varies across the retina, though the function of this inhomogeneity is less clear. We previously demonstrated spatially varying spectral sensitivity of double cones in the cichlid fish Metriaclima zebra owing to coexpression of different opsins. Here, we map the distributions of ganglion cells and cone cells and quantify opsin coexpression in single cones to show these also vary across the retina. We identify an area centralis with peak acuity and infrequent coexpression, which may be suited for tasks such as foraging and detecting male signals. The peripheral retina has reduced ganglion cell densities and increased opsin coexpression. Modeling of cichlid visual tasks indicates that coexpression might hinder colour discrimination of foraging targets and some fish colours. But, coexpression might improve contrast detection of dark objects against bright backgrounds, which might be useful for detecting predators or zooplankton. This suggests a trade-off between acuity and colour discrimination in the central retina versus lower resolution but more sensitive contrast detection in the peripheral retina. Significant variation in the pattern of coexpression among individuals, however, raises interesting questions about the selective forces at work.

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Spatial and temporal patterns of zooplankton standing biomass and production in Lake Malawi

Cited by 21 publications

References 26 publications

Temporal trends of phytoplankton and zooplankton stable isotope composition in tropical Lake Malawi

Temporal trends of phytoplankton and zooplankton stable isotope composition in tropical Lake Malawi

Parallel life history evolution in mouthbrooding cichlids from the African Great Lakes

Retinal specialization through spatially varying cell densities and opsin coexpression in cichlid fish

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