Aldehyde suppression of copepod recruitment in blooms of a ubiquitous planktonic diatom

Adrianna Ianora (), Antonio Miralto, Serge A. Poulet, Ylenia Carotenuto, Isabella Buttino, Giovanna Romano, Raffaella Casotti, Georg Pohnert, Thomas Wichard, Luca Colucci-D'Amato, Giuseppe Terrazzano and Victor Smetacek
Additional contact information
Adrianna Ianora: Stazione Zoologica “A. Dohrn”
Antonio Miralto: Stazione Zoologica “A. Dohrn”
Serge A. Poulet: Station Biologique de Roscoff, CNRS
Ylenia Carotenuto: Stazione Zoologica “A. Dohrn”
Isabella Buttino: Stazione Zoologica “A. Dohrn”
Giovanna Romano: Stazione Zoologica “A. Dohrn”
Raffaella Casotti: Stazione Zoologica “A. Dohrn”
Georg Pohnert: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Thomas Wichard: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Luca Colucci-D'Amato: Institute of Endocrinology and Experimental Oncology, CNR
Giuseppe Terrazzano: University of Naples
Victor Smetacek: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

Nature, 2004, vol. 429, issue 6990, 403-407

Abstract: Abstract The growth cycle in nutrient-rich, aquatic environments starts with a diatom bloom that ends in mass sinking of ungrazed cells and phytodetritus1. The low grazing pressure on these blooms has been attributed to the inability of overwintering copepod populations to track them temporally2. We tested an alternative explanation: that dominant diatom species impair the reproductive success of their grazers. We compared larval development of a common overwintering copepod fed on a ubiquitous, early-blooming diatom species with its development when fed on a typical post-bloom dinoflagellate. Development was arrested in all larvae in which both mothers and their larvae were fed the diatom diet. Mortality remained high even if larvae were switched to the dinoflagellate diet. Aldehydes, cleaved from a fatty acid precursor by enzymes activated within seconds after crushing of the cell3, elicit the teratogenic effect4. This insidious mechanism, which does not deter the herbivore from feeding but impairs its recruitment, will restrain the cohort size of the next generation of early-rising overwinterers. Such a transgenerational plant–herbivore interaction could explain the recurringly inefficient use of a predictable, potentially valuable food resource—the spring diatom bloom—by marine zooplankton.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/nature02526

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