Most zooplankton are derived from marine ancestors (not aquatic spiders, mites, insects, pulmonate gastropods, rotifersI. Kingdom Protista (microzooplankton) – single celled eukaryotic organisms
and perhaps cladocera)
Freshwater plankton don’t bioluminesce
2. Subphylum Sarcodina
(amoeboid forms)
1) Amoeba
2) Difflugia
a) makes a hard case called a test of sand grains
b) migrates vertically by regulating density by altering lipid content
c) often get large Difflugia blooms in the great lakes in the
spring
3) Heliozoans
3. Phylum Ciliophora
(ciliates)
Paramecium
B. Miscellaneous
1. Less work done on the
ecology of individual microzooplankton protists than other zooplankton
2. Many tolerate low oxygen
concentrations
C. Life history
1. Reproduction by
conjugation
2. Some can reproduce
asexually
by fision
3. Many forms can produce
resistant protective cysts induced by drying, excessive heat or cold,
lack
of food
(some viable for over 40 years)
D. Feeding
1. Mastigophora consume
small algae, bacteria and detritus
2. Ciliophora and Sarcodina
can also consume mastigophora
3. Cilia and flagella are
used both for motility and to set up food currents
4. Sarcodina have
pseudopodia
that engulf food
5. Are themselves eaten
by other zooplankton
Kingdom Animalia (metazoans)
II. Phylum Cnidaria (Coelenterata)
A. Taxonomic Groups
1. medusa
Craspedacusta
B. Miscellaneous
1. Medusa forms are fairly
rare, poor swimmers
2. Radially symmetrical
C. Life history –
1. Medusas have a polyp
stage
2. The benthic cnidarian,
Hydra,
has lost medusa stage – when reproduce sexually they make eggs
that when fertilized by sperm produce new polyps
D. Feeding –
1. Eat zooplankton and
sometimes
small larval fish
2. Have stinging cells (cnidoblasts/nematocysts)
for catching prey – shoot out a sticky thread; some have neurotoxins
III. Phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms), Class Turbellaria
A. Taxonomy
1. Rhabdocoels
(order)
B. Miscellaneous
1. Move by cilia and
muscular
undulation
2. Gut opening in the center
of body
C. Life History
1. Are hermaphrodites with
internal fertilization
2. Direct development
D. Feeding
1. Predators and scavengers
2. Rise up from lake bottom
at night and eat other zooplankton
(Case et al.
1979. Flatworms control density of mosquito larvae in rice paddies)
IV. Phylum Mollusca
A. Taxonomic Groups – adult mollusks are benthic,
but some bivalves have planktonic larvae
B. Miscellaneous
1. Glochidium
(larval
form) found in the plankton
a. Most glochidia are parasitic and attach to fish
b. Later encyst
c. Metamorphose into mussels and sink to the bottom
3. Veliger larva
of zebra and quagga mussels live in the plankton (disperse)
C. Life history
1. adult unionid mussels
(native) release large numbers of small glochidia larvae
2. zebra mussel (exotic)
veligers live in the plankton for ~10 days
D. Feeding
1. veligers consume algae
(adults filter algae, microzooplankton and detritus from the water)
V. Phylum Rotifera (Rotatoria)
A. Taxonomy
1. Class Bdellioda
a.~200 species; very difficult to tell apart
b. ID them by their trophi (jaws)
2. Class Monogonata
a. 90% of the species
b. representative genera
i. Keratella
ii. Brachionus
iii. Conochilus
iv. Asplanchna
B. Miscellaneous
1. small: 30 mm
(include the smallest metazoan) in tropics to 1 mm
2. most morphologically
diverse group of freshwater plankton
3. some species are sessile
(attached), but many are purely planktonic
4. most abundant in
freshwater;
evolved in freshwater
5. can have a hard case
called a lorica (same name as for some algae);
6. have eutely – cell
constancy
– no cell division in any somatic cells
7. cilia band is known as
a corona
8. jaws are called trophi
and are made of chitin
9. often fairly abundant
(200-300/L up to 5000/L)
C. Life History
1. Bdelloid males are never
seen (no sex for 40 million years)
2. Monogonata are cyclical
parthenogens

D. Feeding
a. the rotifers use their
cilia to create currents around their anterior ends
b. some are predatory; some
eat algae; some eat protozoans
c. Trophi (jaws):
(1) malleate – designed to mash food; algae eaters
(2) virgate – designed to suck in food or puncture tissue and suck up
contents
(3) forcipate – designed to extend out of mouth
VI. Phylum Arthropoda, Class Crustacea, Order Branchiopoda
A. Taxonomy
1. Cladocera
a) Daphnia – water flea
b) Bosmina
c) Leptodora
d) Cercopagis
B. Miscellaneous
1. 300 mm
to 1 cm long
2. Have a bivalve carapace
with a gap
3. Herbivorous cladocera
have paddle-shaped legs and draw water currents into carapace
C. Life History
1. rapid life cycles – 1
to 2 weeks per generation
2. most often are
parthenogenic
– cyclical parthenogens
3. direct development --
no distinctive change in morphology associated with each instar
4. clutch size variable
a. related to age (body size), instar, food levels
b. eggs produced after each adult molt
5. cues for male and haploid
egg production – crowding (excretion products), decreased food, light
decreases,
temperature decreases
6. Sexual reproduction
results
in diapause eggs -- ephippia (saddle)
7. arctic daphnids can often
produce resting eggs without males (asexually)
8. Some daphnid species
and clones never make resting eggs
9. some cladocera overwinter
as adults in the lake

VII. Phylum Arthropoda, Class Crustacea, Order Copepoda
A. Taxonomy
1. Suborder Cyclopoida
– short antennae
2. Suborder Calanoida
– long antennae
a. Diaptomus
3. Suborder Harpacticoida -- mostly littoral and benthic; some parasitic
B. Miscellaneous
1. widely distributed in
all freshwaters
a. from tropical to arctic regions
b. from low ionic strength to salty
2. Will accumulate different
lipids if are in cold versus in warm environments
3. Body size -- 300 mm
to 5 mm
C. Life History
1. Sexual reproduction only
– males and females
2. Indirect development
–
a) juvenile – nauplius
b) copepodid stage – metamorphosis to this stage
3. Cyclopoida
a. eggs are carried by the females in egg sacs
b. mating behavior
i. male make spermatophores (packages of nonflagellated sperm)
ii. males must give spermatophores to the females (mating pheromones
and
behavior)
iii. males have ‘geniculate’ antennae that are used to deposit
spermatophore
on female (true for calanoids as well)
c. relatively short generation time, several per year
1) 1-2 months per generation
2) generation time affected strongly by temperature
d. resting stages
1) in some species the eggs can be dried and hatch when wet
2) diapause in copepodite IV stage, not as a resting egg
3) encyst in sediments in fall and undergo stasis for the winter
4) diapause is broken by temperature or light in the spring
2. Calanoida
a. relatively long generation time, 1 to 2 per year
b. most carry eggs in a sac or deposit them into water
c. no diapause stage as a copepodite
d. production of morphologically distinct resting eggs
1) normal hatching eggs have a thin shell and the nauplii develop (rate
proportional to temperature)
2) diapause (resting) eggs have a thicker shell and can withstand
desiccation.
3) one type has a 2-layer integument or shell, mostly in Northern
populations
(arctic), some temperate, not tropical
4) cues for hatching related to temperature and light
D. Feeding
1. Cyclopoida
a. predaceous/omnivorous
(1) can feed on algae or other animals
(2) nauplii (juveniles) are generally herbivorous and there is an ontogenetic
(developmental)
switch from herbivory to predation as they metamorphose to adult
copepods
b. no elaborate modifications for feeding
2. Calanoida
a. set up feeding currents and remove particles – can select their food
b. mostly herbivorous; large forms like Epischura are sometimes
predaceous (but are herbivorous as nauplii)
c. mouthparts of some modified for filter feeding
3. how do they find food?
i. Mechanoreception – setae on antennae
ii. Chemoreception
4. Harpacticoids
a. mouthparts adapted for seizing and scraping particles from the
sediments
and macrovegetation
b. parasitic on fish
VIII. Phylum Arthropoda, Class Crustacea, Order Malacostraca
A. Taxonomy
i. Mysidacea - mysids
(1) Glacial relicts
(2) Long lived
(3) omnivores
ii. Amphipoda
IX. Phylum Arthropoda, Class Crustacea, Eubranchiopoda
- Life history – two sexes; long lived
- Feeding - omnivores
A. Anostraca - Fairy shrimp
Swim on backs (‘like tiny
walruses’)
B. Notostraca – tadpole shrimp (Triops)
Notostraca will also eat
dead animals or are sometimes predaceous
X. Phylum Arthropoda, Class Crustacea, Order Ostracoda
Mostly benthic
Herbivorous
Resting eggs
Sexual or asexual
reproduction
XI. Phylum Arthropoda, Class Insecta
A. Taxonomy
1. Dipteran (true fly)
larvae
a) Chaoborus – voracious predator
2. Predators
3. Larval stage of flies