Life‐history responses of a freshwater rotifer to copper pollution

In organisms with dormant stages, life-history responses to past pollution can be studied retrospectively. Here, we study such responses in a rotifer (Brachionus calyciflorus) from the once heavily copper-polluted Lake Orta (Italy). We extracted resting eggs from sediments, established clonal lineages from hatchlings, and exposed newborns of these lineages to one of three copper concentrations that each mimicked a specific period in the lake's pollution history. For each rotifer, we daily collected life-table data. We then estimated treatment-specific vital rates and used a stage-structured population model to project population growth rate λ. We also estimated elasticities of λ to vital rates and contributions of vital rates to observed Δλ between copper treatments. As expected, λ decreased with increasing copper concentration. This decrease resulted mostly from a decline in juvenile survival rate (SJ) and partly from a decline in the survival rate of asexually reproducing females (SA). Maturation rate, and with one exception fecundity, also declined but did not contribute consistently to Δλ. λ was most elastic to SJ and SA, indicating that survival rates were under stronger selection than maturation rate and fecundity. Together, our results indicate that variation in juvenile survival is a key component in the rotifers’ copper response. The consistent decrease in SJ with increasing copper stress and the sensitivity of λ to that decrease also suggest that juvenile survival is a useful indicator of population performance under environmental pollution.