Birth and Death Rates of a Littoral Filter Feeding Microcrustacean, Sida crystallina (Cladocera), in Cochran Lake, Michigan

Population changes of Sida crystallina, a filter feeding microcrustacean which attaches to aquatic macrophytes, were examined in Cochran Lake, Michigan during June and July, 1979. Population estimates were derived from organisms present in 10 samples of leaves of the water lily Nymphaea odorata collected every 3 days. Population densities of Sida responded both to food and predation by fish. Declines in average clutch size were associated with decreasing phytoplankton biomass and the increasing dominance of colonial green and blue‐green algae, but were not significantly influenced by the densities of invertebrates on the plants. Largemouth bass fry (Micropterus salmoides) dramatically reduced the numbers of Sida and altered the age structure of the population in late June.