@article{MarzetzKoussoroplisMartinCreuzburgetal.2017,
  author    = {Marzetz, Vanessa and Koussoroplis, Apostolos-Manuel and Martin-Creuzburg, Dominik and Striebel, Maren and Wacker, Alexander},
  title     = {Linking primary producer diversity and food quality effects on herbivores: A biochemical perspective},
  series = {Scientific reports},
  volume    = {7},
  journal   = {Scientific reports},
  publisher = {Nature Publ. Group},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2045-2322},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41598-017-11183-3},
  pages     = {9},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Biodiversity can strongly influence trophic interactions. The nutritional quality of prey communities and how it is related to the prey diversity is suspected to be a major driver of biodiversity effects. As consumer growth can be co-limited by the supply of several biochemical components, biochemically diverse prey communities should promote consumer growth. Yet, there is no clear consensus on how prey specific diversity is linked to community biochemical diversity since previous studies have considered only single nutritional quality traits. Here, we demonstrate that phytoplankton biochemical traits (fatty acids and sterols) can to a large extent explain Daphnia magna growth and its apparent dependence on phytoplankton species diversity. We find strong correlative evidence between phytoplankton species diversity, biochemical diversity, and growth. The relationship between species diversity and growth was partially explained by the fact that in many communities Daphnia was co-limited by long chained polyunsaturated fatty acids and sterols, which was driven by different prey taxa. We suggest that biochemical diversity is a good proxy for the presence of high food quality taxa, and a careful consideration of the distribution of the different biochemical traits among species is necessary before concluding about causal links between species diversity and consumer performance.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{GallUebelEbensenetal.2017,
  author    = {Gall, Andrea and Uebel, Udo and Ebensen, Uwe and Hillebrand, Helmut and Meier, Sandra and Singer, Gabriel and Wacker, Alexander and Striebel, Maren},
  title     = {Planktotrons},
  series = {Limnology and oceanography-methods},
  volume    = {15},
  journal   = {Limnology and oceanography-methods},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {1541-5856},
  doi       = {10.1002/lom3.10196},
  pages     = {663 -- 677},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {We established a new indoor mesocosm facility, 12 fully controlled Planktotrons, designed to conduct marine and freshwater experiments for biodiversity and food web approaches using natural or artificial, benthic or planktonic communities. The Planktotrons are a unique and custom-tailored facility allowing long-term experiments. Wall growth can be inhibited by a rotating gate paddle with silicone lips. Additionally, temperature and light intensity are individually controllable for each Planktotron and the large volume (600 L) enables high-frequency or volume-intense measurements. In a pilot freshwater experiment various trophic levels of a pelagic food web were maintained for up to 90 d. First, an artificially assembled phytoplankton community of 11 species was inoculated in all Planktotrons. After 22 d, two ciliates were added to all, and three Daphnia species were added to six Planktotrons. After 72 d, dissolved organic matter (DOM, an alkaline soil extract) was added as an external disturbance to six of the 12 Planktotrons, involving three Planktotrons stocked with Daphnia and three without, respectively. We demonstrate the suitability of the Planktotrons for food web and biodiversity research. Variation among replicated Planktotrons (n=3 minimum) did not differ from other laboratory systems and field experiments. We investigated population dynamics and interactions among the different trophic levels, and found them affected by the sequence of ciliate and Daphnia addition and the disturbance caused by addition of DOM.},
  language  = {en}
}