Trimethylamine induces migration of waterfleas

Hinnerk Boriss (), Maarten Boersma and Karen H. Wiltshire
Additional contact information
Hinnerk Boriss: Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie
Maarten Boersma: Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie
Karen H. Wiltshire: Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie

Nature, 1999, vol. 398, issue 6726, 382-382

Abstract: Abstract It has long been known that the waterflea Daphnia hyalina exhibits diel vertical migration in the water column, but the chemical that triggers this behaviour has not been identified. We find that trimethylamine (TMA), which is a major component of the odour produced by decaying fish, induces Daphnia to migrate to greater depths during the day, presumably to avoid predation by fish1,2. We observed a gradual increase in average depth of Daphnia with increasing TMA concentration. Changes in light intensity are known to trigger migration3, and chemicals produced by their predators must also be present4. Because migration has demographic and physiological costs, this chemical cue ensures that zooplankton migration occurs only when fish are present.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/18796 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:398:y:1999:i:6726:d:10.1038_18796

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/18796

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().