Intoxicated copepods: ingesting toxic phytoplankton leads to risky behaviour.
Understanding interactions between harmful algal bloom (HAB) species and their grazers is essential for determining mechanisms of bloom proliferation and termination. We exposed the common calanoid copepod, Temora longicornis to the HAB species Alexandrium fundyense and examined effects on copepod survival, ingestion, egg production and swimming behaviour. A. fundyense was readily ingested by T. longicornis and significantly altered copepod swimming behaviour without affecting copepod survival or fitness. A. fundyense caused T. longicornis to increase their swimming speed, and the straightness of their path long after the copepods had been removed from the A. fundyense treatment. Models suggest that these changes could lead to a 25-56% increase in encounter frequency between copepods and their predators. This work highlights the need to determine how ingesting HAB species alters grazer behaviour as this can have significant impacts on the fate of HAB toxins in marine systems.
School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Darling Marine Center, 193 Clarks Cove Road, Walpole, ME 04573, USA rachel.lasleyrasher@maine.edu.
Rachel S
RS
Lasley-Rasher
School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 310 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Kathryn
K
Nagel
Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, 915 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Aakanksha
A
Angra
School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 310 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Jeannette
J
Yen
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D033342:Copepoda / Q000187:drug effects / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology*; D004141:Dinoflagellida / Q000472:pathogenicity; D017753:Ecosystem; D020387:Food Chain; D057097:Harmful Algal Bloom; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D008954:Models, Biological; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D013550:Swimming
D009498:Neurotoxins
Alexandrium fundyense; Temora longicornis; copepod behaviour; harmful algal blooms