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Comment
. 2019 Jun 11:8:e48459.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.48459.

Finding the fish factor

Affiliations
Comment

Finding the fish factor

Georg Pohnert. Elife. .

Abstract

The water flea Daphnia moves to deeper waters to avoid predators when it detects a chemical produced by fish.

Keywords: Cyprinus carpio; Daphnia magna; Rutilus rutilus; daphnia; diel vertical migration; ecology; kairomones; zooplankton.

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Conflict of interest statement

GP No competing interests declared

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Daphnia water fleas change their behavior if fish are present.
Left: During the day Daphnia migrate to deeper, darker regions of the lake if they detect chemical signals called kairomones (not shown) that are released by fish. Middle: At night, when fish cannot see them, Daphnia move up to the water near the surface to eat the microalgae (green circles) that are plentiful there. Right: When no fish are present, there are no kairomones to detect, and Daphnia stay near the surface day and night.

Comment on

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