Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS45 Temporary Aquatic Ecosystems: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (Spatial and Temporal Connections)

Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2001, Time: 4:45:00 PM

Location: Cochiti/Taos

Schwartz, S, S, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, USA, schwass@okstate.edu

Cosyleon, G, , Oklahoma State Universty, Stillwater, USA, cosyleo@okstate.edu

Yaselusky, S, , Oklahoma State Universty, Stillwater, USA,

A COMPARISON OF BET-HEDGING STRATEGIES AMONG SPECIES IN TEMPORARY AQUATIC HABITATS

Bet-hedging is a strategy employed by many invertebrates inhabiting temporary aquatic habitats whereby some propagules delay hatching after the habitats first become wet. As previous studies have focused on single species our study aimed to compare strategies across a suite of species from a single habitat. Our test material was collected from a dry pond on the Golan Heights, Israel. This soil was subjected to five different treatments of periods of wetting and drying. We monitored hatchlings of five taxa. Considerable variability was found among taxa in delay before hatching, delay before peak hatch, and overall duration of hatch. Conchostracans hatched most readily and had the earliest peak hatch. Cladocerans showed the greatest variability in hatching, with some propagules hatching more than four weeks after the start of the experiment. Copepods employed an intermediate strategy. These bet-hedging strategies may have evolved, limited by the particular physiological plasticity of the species, in response to selection pressure from intra-and inter-specific competition and predation.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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