TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sperfeld, Erik
A1  - Wacker, Alexander
T1  - Maternal diet of Daphnia magna affects offspring growth responses to supplementation with particular polyunsaturated fatty acids
JF  - Hydrobiologia : acta hydrobiologica, hydrographica, limnologica et protistologica
N2  - Previous studies examining the effects of food quality on zooplankton often controlled for maternal effects of resource provisioning using standardized maternal diets. However, varying nutritional history of mothers may change resource provisioning to their progeny, especially regarding polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which may change the interpretation of previously observed fitness responses of offspring. To assess PUFA-mediated maternal provisioning effects on offspring, we raised females of the cladoceran Daphnia magna on diets differing considerably in PUFA composition and raised their offspring on a PUFA-lacking diet supplemented with the omega 3 PUFAs alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and/or eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). The mass-specific growth responses of offspring to their own diets were affected by the maternal diet regime, probably due to varying maternal PUFA provisioning. A low maternal provisioning of EPA or ALA was sufficient to prevent growth limitation of offspring by these PUFAs until reaching maturity. A comparison with results of published ALA and EPA supplementation experiments suggests that the previously observed limitation effects depended on the usage of a single algae genus as maternal diet. Therefore, we suggest that maternal diets should be deliberately varied in future studies assessing ecological relevant food quality effects on zooplankton, especially regarding PUFAs.
KW  - Food quality
KW  - Maternal effects
KW  - Nutritional ecology
KW  - Resource provisioning
KW  - Zooplankton
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2244-y
SN  - 0018-8158
SN  - 1573-5117
VL  - 755
IS  - 1
SP  - 267
EP  - 282
PB  - Springer
CY  - Dordrecht
ER  -