RUI: Implications of Taste and Size Selective Feeding by Zooplankton

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Recent studies have made progress in determining how, when, and to what extent zooplankton, especially calanoid copepods, use taste to discriminate between food particles which differ in nutritional quality. The first goal of this proposal is to develop mechanistic models of algal consumption which integrate the effects of taste and size selective feeding. The second goal is to use Diaptomus and Daphnia as models for testing the implications of contrasting feeding modes for grazer- phytoplankton interactions and zooplankton competition. These basic problems will be attacked using field and laboratory experiments representing a range of time scales and degrees of experimental control. Food selection experiments will focus on a new question: concentration-variable selection and ingestion of large, difficult-to-handle phytoplankton by behaviorally flexible grazers. Both short and long-term grazer manipulation will be used to compare and contrast the impacts of grazing by Diaptomus and Daphnia on natural phytoplankton assemblages. The possibility of positive interactions through complementary feeding niches ("indirect mutualism"), a potentially important stabilizing factor in zooplankton communities, will be tested for the first time through growth and competition experiments with Diaptomus and Daphnia.//