10.5061/DRYAD.Z08KPRRCX
Schanz, Federica R.
University of Zurich
Sommer, Stefan
University of Zurich
Lami, Andrea
National Research Council
Fontaneto, Diego
National Research Council
Ozgul, Arpat
University of Zurich
Data from: Life-history responses of a freshwater rotifer to copper pollution
Dryad
dataset
2021
Population ecology
Swiss National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/00yjd3n13
31003A_182286
European Research Council
https://ror.org/0472cxd90
337785
2022-06-27T00:00:00Z
2021-07-29T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7877
117861 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
In organisms with dormant stages, life-history responses to past pollution
can be studied retrospectively. Here, we study such responses in a rotifer
(Brachionus calyciflorus) from the once heavily copper-polluted Lake Orta
(Italy). We extracted resting eggs from sediments, established clonal
lineages from hatchlings, and exposed newborns of these lineages to one of
three copper concentrations that each mimicked a specific period in the
lake’s pollution history. For each rotifer, we daily collected life-table
data. We then estimated treatment-specific vital rates and used a
stage-structured population model to project population growth rate λ. We
also estimated elasticities of λ to vital rates and contributions of vital
rates to observed Δλ between copper treatments. As expected, λ decreased
with increasing copper concentration. This decrease resulted mostly from a
decline in juvenile survival rate (SJ) and partly from a decline in the
survival rate of asexually reproducing females (SA). Maturation rate, and
with one exception fecundity, also declined but did not contribute
consistently to Δλ. λ was most elastic to SJ and SA, indicating that
survival rates were under stronger selection than maturation rate and
fecundity. Together, our results indicate that variation in juvenile
survival is a key component in the rotifers’ copper response. The
consistent decrease in SJ with increasing copper stress and the
sensitivity of λ to that decrease also suggest that juvenile survival is a
useful indicator of population performance under environmental pollution.
We exposed each experimental rotifer individually for the entire lifetime
to either 0, 40, or 80 µg Cu L–1, added as copper sulphate pentahydrate,
and a food density of 1 × 106 algal cells mL–1. We recorded daily whether
a given rotifer was still alive, how many female offspring it had
produced, and whether it was mictic or amictic.
“id” is rotifer identity; “run” is experimental run number; “population”
(“contemporary”, “recovery”, “peak”) is population identity
(post-pollution population, recovery population, peak-pollution
population); “copper” is Cu concentration in µg per litre; “stage” (“juv”,
“amictic_ad”, “mictic_ad”) is life stage (juvenile, amictic adult, mictic
adult); “age” is rotifer age in days; “survival” (“1” or “0” mean the
rotifer survived or died, respectively); “fecundity” is number of
offspring; “NA”: not available.