Features that matter: studying how phytoplankton drives zooplankton community functional traits

Freshwater phytoplankton and zooplankton are complex and diverse communities which greatly contribute to the functioning of freshwater ecosystems, constituting a path of nutrient cycling. The relationships of these communities are often driven by species’ functional traits, such as defensive features and grazing adaptations. The aim of the present work was to study if the functional traits of phytoplankton (primary producers) promote specific traits of zooplankton (consumers). We calculated community weighted mean (CWM) of a trait of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities and constructed decision trees to study the relationships between the functional traits of both communities. We found that specific functional traits of zooplankton were most significantly promoted by size and shape of algal particles, followed by potential toxicity and spines possession, which had limited, however still important effects. Armor possession and motility of algae were found not to be promoting any functional traits of zooplankton. Easy-to-handle algal particles promoted greater variability of zooplankton’s functional traits, while large, hard to manage algal particles (often characteristic for cyanobacteria) promoted zooplankton taxa bearing more specialized functional traits. Our study shows that phytoplankton functional traits can be considered as a biotic filter, leading to the selection of advantageous functional traits among zooplankton community.