Water Flea Destroying Planktivorous Fish
Limnology and Oceanography 54, 757-769 (2009)
The invasive spiny water flea has entered the Great Lakes ecosystem and is damaging the ecosystem. This invasive specie has been known to eat large quantities of zoo plankton, and with its diet, the water flea takes away resources from other native species in the ecosystem.
Sophie Foster and her colleagues at the University of Toronto Graduate School conducted research on the Great Lakes’ ecosystems. They researched the abundance of the native fish speices in both invaded and non invaded lakes. The researchers discovered that the planktivorous fish were a lot less abundant in the invaded lakes than the non-invaded lakes. Foster and her team distinguished that the spiny water flea is not only destroying the zoo plankton population but also the populations of the fish that feast on the plankton.
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So I was a little confused by your last sentence. I wasn’t able to tell if it meant that the same flea is not only killing-off plankton but that which eats the plankton as well? Other than that you did a really good job of summarizing the information and getting the key information across.
I could of phrased that a little bit better, but yes the spiny water flea is killing off the plankton and also is indirectly causing the fish populations that eat the zooplankton to decrease in amount.
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