| Leptodiaptomus ashlandi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Female and male L. ashlandi | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Subclass: | Copepoda |
| Order: | Calanoida |
| Family: | Diaptomidae |
| Genus: | Leptodiaptomus |
| Species: | L. ashlandi |
| Binomial name | |
| Leptodiaptomus ashlandi (Marsh, 1893) | |
Leptodiaptomus ashlandi is a calanoid copepod zooplankton native to the Laurentian Great Lakes and their basin.
Leptodiaptomus ashlandi is a zooplankton species widely distributed across Canada and the northern half of the United States in large deep lakes. It occurs in all the Great Lakes. [1]
 | This article may be too technical for most readers to understand.(July 2014) |
Adult females of L. ashlandi can be distinguished by their two-segmented urosome and asymmetrical, rounded metasomal wings. Males are characterized by a large lateral spine on leg 5, located in the proximal third of the terminal segment, and by the presence of a slender process on the third segment from the distal end of the right antennule. [2] This species is morphologically similar to other leptodiaptomids ( Leptodiaptomus minutus , L. sicilis ) and skistodiaptomids ( Skistodiaptomus oregonensis ).
Leptodiaptomus ashlandi are known prey items for a number of native and non-native Great Lakes fishes. They are also prey items for other invertebrate zooplankton. Remains have been found within gut-contents of Mysis diluviana [3] and are trophically below Limnocalanus macrurus . [4]
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water that are unable to propel themselves against a current. The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucial source of food to many small and large aquatic organisms, such as bivalves, fish and whales.
Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequently, they drift or are carried along by currents in the ocean, or by currents in seas, lakes or rivers.
Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic, some are benthic, a number of species have parasitic phases, and some continental species may live in limnoterrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests, bogs, springs, ephemeral ponds, and puddles, damp moss, or water-filled recesses (phytotelmata) of plants such as bromeliads and pitcher plants. Many live underground in marine and freshwater caves, sinkholes, or stream beds. Copepods are sometimes used as biodiversity indicators.
Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in this pouch and are not free-swimming characterises the order. The mysid's head bears a pair of stalked eyes and two pairs of antennae. The thorax consists of eight segments each bearing branching limbs, the whole concealed beneath a protective carapace and the abdomen has six segments and usually further small limbs.
The alewife is an anadromous species of herring found in North America. It is one of the "typical" North American shads, attributed to the subgenus Pomolobus of the genus Alosa. As an adult it is a marine species found in the northern West Atlantic Ocean, moving into estuaries before swimming upstream to breed in freshwater habitats, but some populations live entirely in fresh water. It is best known for its invasion of the Great Lakes by using the Welland Canal to bypass Niagara Falls. Here, its population surged, peaking between the 1950s and 1980s to the detriment of many native species of fish. In an effort to control them biologically, Pacific salmon were introduced, only partially successfully. As a marine fish, the alewife is a US National Marine Fisheries Service "Species of Concern".
The rainbow smelt is a North American species of fish of the family Osmeridae. Walleye, trout, and other larger fish prey on these smelt. The rainbow smelt prefer juvenile ciscoes, zooplankton such as calanoid copepods, and other small organisms, but are aggressive and will eat almost any fish they find. They are anadromous spring spawners and prefer clean streams with light flow and light siltation. The rainbow smelt face several barriers. They are weak swimmers and struggle to navigate fish ladders preventing them from making it past dams to the headwater streams where they spawn. The rise in erosion and dams helped to decimate the smelt population in the 1980s. There are currently plans to try to reduce damming and to help control erosion.
Malacosteus niger, commonly known as the black dragon fish, is a species of deep-sea fish. Some additional common names for this species include: northern stoplight loosejaw, lightless loosejaw, black loosejaw, and black hinged-head. It belongs to the family Stomiidae, or dragonfishes. It is among the top predators of the open mesopelagic zone. M. niger is a circumglobal species, which means that it inhabits waters ranging from the tropics to the subarctics. Not many studies have been conducted on its feeding habits, but recent research suggests that M. niger primarily feed on calanoid copepods which is a form of zooplankton. Indeed, it appears that M. niger primarily prey on zooplankton despite its apparent morphological adaptations for the consumption of relatively large prey. Another unique adaptation for this species is its ability to produce both red and blue bioluminescence. Most mesopelagic species aren't capable of producing red bioluminescence. This is advantageous because most other species cannot perceive red light, therefore allowing M. niger to camouflage part of itself to its prey and predators.
Coregonus hoyi, also known as the bloater, is a species or form of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. It is a silvery-coloured herring-like fish, 25.5 centimetres (10.0 in) long. It is found in most of the Great Lakes and in Lake Nipigon, and inhabits underwater slopes. This fish is not to be confused with the extinct deepwater cisco, a large fish that shared a common name with the bloater.
Trophic cascades are powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems, occurring when a trophic level in a food web is suppressed. For example, a top-down cascade will occur if predators are effective enough in predation to reduce the abundance, or alter the behavior of their prey, thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from predation.
The bloody-red mysid, Hemimysis anomala, is a shrimp-like crustacean in the Mysida order, native to the Ponto-Caspian region, which has been spreading across Europe since the 1950s. In 2006, it was discovered to have invaded the North American Great Lakes.
Mysis is a genus of mysid crustaceans in the family Mysidae, distributed mainly in the coastal zone of the Arctic and high boreal seas. Several species also inhabit northern freshwater lakes and the brackish Caspian Sea. Fifteen species are recognized. Body lengths range from 1 to 3 centimetres.
Bythotrephes longimanus, or the spiny water flea, is a planktonic crustacean less than 15 millimetres (0.6 in) long. It is native to fresh waters of Northern Europe and Asia, but has been accidentally introduced and widely distributed in the Great Lakes area of North America since the 1980s. Bythotrephes is typified by a long abdominal spine with several barbs which protect it from predators.
Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the food chain on plankton, often by filter feeding. They include particularly fishes of the order Clupeiformes, but also other small fish, including halfbeaks, silversides, smelt such as capelin and goldband fusiliers.
Mysis relicta is a shrimp-like crustacean in the Mysida order, native to lakes of Northern Europe and to the brackish Baltic Sea.
Mysis diluviana is a mysid crustacean found in freshwater lakes of northern North America.
Leptodora is a genus containing two species of large, nearly transparent predatory water fleas. They grow up to 21 mm (0.83 in) long, with two large antennae used for swimming and a single compound eye. The legs are used to catch copepods that it comes into contact with by chance. Leptodora kindtii is found in temperate lakes across the Northern Hemisphere and is probably the only cladoceran ever described in a newspaper; L. richardi is only known from eastern Russia. For most of the year, Leptodora reproduces parthenogenetically, with males only appearing late in the season, to produce winter eggs which hatch the following spring. Leptodora is the only genus in its family, the Leptodoridae, and suborder, Haplopoda.
A planktivore is an aquatic organism that feeds on planktonic food, including zooplankton and phytoplankton. Planktivorous organisms encompass a range of some of the planet's smallest to largest multicellular animals in both the present day and in the past billion years; basking sharks and copepods are just two examples of giant and microscopic organisms that feed upon plankton. Planktivory can be an important mechanism of top-down control that contributes to trophic cascades in aquatic and marine systems. There is a tremendous diversity of feeding strategies and behaviors that planktivores utilize to capture prey. Some planktivores utilize tides and currents to migrate between estuaries and coastal waters; other aquatic planktivores reside in lakes or reservoirs where diverse assemblages of plankton are present, or migrate vertically in the water column searching for prey. Planktivore populations can impact the abundance and community composition of planktonic species through their predation pressure, and planktivore migrations facilitate nutrient transport between benthic and pelagic habitats.
Leptodiaptomus sicilis is a calanoid copepod native to the Laurentian Great Lakes and its basin.
Leptodiaptomus ashlandi is a calanoid copepod zooplankton.
Muggiaea atlantica is a species of small hydrozoan, a siphonophore in the family Diphyidae. It is a cosmopolitan species occurring in inshore waters of many of the world's oceans, and it has colonised new areas such as the North Sea and the Adriatic Sea. It is subject to large population swings, and has been held responsible for the death of farmed salmon in Norway. The species was first described by J.T. Cunningham in 1892 from a specimen obtained at Plymouth, England.
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