Filtyp
The factors that drive partial migration in organisms are not fully understood. Roach (Rutilus rutilus), a freshwater fish, engage in partial migration where parts of populations switch between summer habitats in lakes and winter habitats in connected streams. To test if the partial migration trait is phenotypically plastic or has genetic components, we translocated roach from 2 populations with d
Regime shifts in shallow lakes are typically characterized by submerged macrophyte (clear water regime) or phytoplankton (turbid regime) dominance. Climate warming is expected to affect water quality and facilitate turbidity in lakes, but we may also expect synergistic effects on organisms' interactions from climate and local specific dynamics in lakes. We here examined long-term changes in phytop
To assess how synergies between climate warming and increased concentrations of humic substances ("brownification") will affect rotifer community establishment in spring, we conducted a mesocosm experiment where we combined a 3 degrees C temperature increase with a doubling in water color, changes corresponding to modeled projections for the coming 25-75 yr. We also performed a complementary preda
Migratory movements in air or water are strongly affected by wind and ocean currents and an animal which does not compensate for lateral flow will be drifted from its intended direction of movement. We investigated whether arctic shorebirds during autumn migration in the region of South Sweden and the southern Baltic Sea compensate for wind drift or allow themselves to be drifted when approaching
1. Aquatic ecosystems in Northern Europe are expected to face increases in temperature and water colour (TB) in future. While effects of these factors have been studied separately, it is unknown whether and how a combination of them might affect phenological events and trophic interactions. 2. In a mesocosm study, we combined both factors to create conditions expected to arise during the coming ce
Migration has evolved as a strategy to maximise individual fitness in response to seasonally changing ecological and environmental conditions. However, migration can also incur costs, and quantifying these costs can provide important clues to the ultimate ecological forces that underpin migratory behaviour. A key emerging model to explain migration in many systems posits that migration is driven b
The aim of this study was to explore the variation and regulation of bacterial carbon processing at a coastal oligotrophic site of the Island of Majorca in the Mediterranean Sea. In situ bacterial production (BP), respiration (BR), growth efficiency, and carbon demand in relation to environmental parameters were studied over an annual cycle. In addition, the response of bacterial carbon processing
This study reports increasing iron concentrations in rivers draining into the Baltic Sea. Given the decisive role of iron to the structure and biogeochemical function of aquatic ecosystems, this trend is likely one with far reaching consequences to the receiving system. What those consequences may be depends on the fate of the iron in estuarine mixing. We here assess the stability of riverine iron
Several zooplankton species are susceptible to ultraviolet radiation (UV), suggesting that UV may shape zooplankton community composition. Little is known, however, about the quantitative effects of long-term UV exposure in relation to biological processes. Therefore, we studied effects of UV on behaviour, population dynamics and reproduction of several zooplankton taxa. We identified different st
We hypothesized that habitats differing in water flow regime would differ in bacterial function either because of differences in the local environment, in bacterial community composition (BCC), or in the mechanism shaping BCC (community assembly). In 20 lakes and 17 inlet streams BCC was analyzed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism of the gene coding for 16S ribosomal RNA, and bac
Nannandry is a sexual system where males ("dwarf males") are much smaller than the conspecific females. Dwarf males occur in a wide range of unrelated organisms but the evolutionary advantages of this condition are poorly understood. The dwarf male sexual system results in differences in the mode of dispersal and establishment as well as the life span between males and females. Such differences mu
It is frequently observed that the local relative abundances of aquatic microbial taxa are correlated with their average relative abundance at the regional scale, which results in the composition of different communities being more similar than expected by chance or invariant. The degree to which communities within a region match the regional average community is variable and likely depends on sev
1. The massive growth of large, toxic cyanobacteria in eutrophic waters has traditionally been explained by their evolution of defences to herbivorous zooplankton. These conclusions come mostly from studies using the large-bodied cladoceran Daphnia as a grazer model. In contrast, very little is known about the effects of other zooplankters such as copepods and small cladocerans that, unlike Daphni
This note is based on a literature search and a recent review of bat mortality data from wind farms in Europe (published elsewhere). We suggest that mortality of bats at wind turbines may be linked to high-altitude feeding on migrating insects that accumulate at the turbine towers. Modern wind turbines seem to reach high enough into the airspace to interfere with the migratory movements of insects
If microbial degradation of carbon substrates in arctic soil is stimulated by climatic warming, this would be a significant positive feedback on global change. With data from a climate change experiment in Northern Sweden we show that warming and enhanced soil nutrient availability, which is a predicted long-term consequence of climatic warming and mimicked by fertilization, both increase soil mic
1. We review and update recent observations of cyanobacteria-zooplankton interactions, identify theoretical and methodological limitations and evaluate approaches necessary for understanding the effects of increasing cyanobacterial blooms on plankton dynamics. 2. The emphasis on oversimplified studies using large-bodied Daphnia species, not previously exposed to cyanobacteria, has limited our unde
Fish, which are generally visual foragers, experiences reduced reaction distance in visually degraded environments, which has consequences for encounter rates with prey. Small prey is detected at shorter distances than larger prey, and piscivores are therefore predicted to be more strongly affected by visual degradation. In experiments, roach (Rutilus rutilus) were fed two plankton prey types and
We tested the effect of the cyanobacterium Gloeotrichia echinulata on a diverse array of phytoplankton. We found that Gloeotrichia increased the growth rates of five of seven phytoplankton species up to 620% in comparison with a medium-only control after 96 h.
Loss of biodiversity in European farmland has been attributed to agricultural intensification and the resulting loss of ecological heterogeneity. To alleviate the effect of agricultural intensification, farmers are compensated via agri-environment schemes for carrying out farming in ways to preserve and restore biodiversity. However, the effectiveness of these schemes has been questioned and evalu
Capsule Swedish breeding bird species that are predicted to experience a more suitable climate by 2050 are currently increasing in numbers. Aims To test, for a large set of breeding birds, if recent population trends mirror the changes in predicted climatic suitability across the Swedish distribution range, and to test if considering natal dispersal improves the fit of the predictive models. Metho
