Feeding on stressed algae exerts important effects on life history traits of Daphnia magna in a multi-stressor environment

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems are increasingly exposed to anthropogenic eutrophication, including high nitrogen. In addition, climate change is leading to more intense and frequent heatwaves, which have enormous impacts on all trophic levels of the ecosystem. Any change in the lower trophic levels, e.g., the phytoplankton, also introduces stress to higher trophic levels e.g., the zooplankton crustacean Daphnia. Individual effects of heatwaves, high nitrate, and changing feed quality have been studied in daphnia, but less is known about their interactive effects. This study used a 3 × 3 × 2 factorial design in which daphnia were exposed to combinations of ecologically relevant nitrate concentrations (0, 50, or 200 mg/L) and different heatwave scenarios (no, short-moderate, or long-intense) in which individuals were either fed with microalgae (P. subcapitata and C. reinhardtii) grown at 20 °C and 50 mg/L nitrate (control feed) or the same conditions as daphnia was exposed to (experimental feed). Throughout the experiment, the interactive effects of high nitrate, heatwave, and feed on mortality, maturation, offspring, and body size were evaluated. In general, heatwaves shorten the lifespan of daphnia. Exposing daphnia to a long-intense heatwave combined with high nitrate resulted in poor performance. In the nitrate-limited condition, however, the restricted proliferation of microalgae reduced feed availability, which also had a major impact on daphnia's life history traits. Daphnia cultured in high nitrate and fed control feed performed better than when fed experimental feed, suggesting that in a high nitrate condition, the microalgae grown under the same experimental conditions was either unable to meet energy requirements or introduced extra stress for the daphnia. Most importantly, the effect of nitrate and heatwave as stressors on the availability and quality of the feed had a greater impact on daphnia than its direct impact. Interestingly, a transgenerational adaptation to nitrate was observed which may help to maintain ecological balance in the long run.