El próximo jueves 19/01/2023 a las 15:00h en la Sala Reuniones SS6 (Edificio de Cabecera, Semisótano), Cristina Arenas (Ecología Evolutiva) nos hablará sobre el tema: “Different dispersal capacity in Brachionus plicatilis species complex: a wind tunnel experiment with rotifers”.

She says:

Dispersal is a key factor in the survival of plankton inhabiting temporary environments, which have to survive a period of adverse conditions. In the zooplankton, diapausing eggs are generally the dominant dispersal propagules. Despite small zooplankters, like rotifers, are expected to be more readily dispersed by wind, measurements of wind dispersal are rare. With this idea I did a research stay of three months in the KU Leuven, Belgium. I used two rotifer cryptic species from the Brachionus plicatilis complex: B. plicatilis s.s. and B. rotundiformis, to assess the wind dispersal capacity of their diapausing eggs. A wind-tunnel experiment using artificial substrates that differ in grain was performed and several morphological traits of the diapausing eggs assumed to have a role in dispersal were characterized. Our results show differential dispersal capacity between the diapausing eggs of the species studied mediated by differences in their size, as well as an effect of substrate grain offering conditions of greater or lesser exposure to the wind in a different way for each species.

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