Seasonal changes in the diel vertical migration of Chaoborus punctipennis larval instars

Abstract

We describe a novel seasonal shift in the vertical migration behavior of Chaoborus punctipennis second-instar larvae in Lake Opeongo, Ontario. An upward-looking 600 kHz acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) moored at a fixed 22 m station in the lake recorded acoustic backscatter continuously during the study period. Zooplankton samples collected indicated that the abundance of C. punctipennis larval instars accounted for the greatest proportion of variance in the linear backscatter from the ADCP. The large fourth-instar larvae underwent normal diel vertical migration throughout the study. Smaller second-instar larvae underwent reverse migration during late June but switched to normal migration by late July. The acoustic record indicates that the switch occurred over a few days around late June, and at this time a double vertical migration appeared with the second instars leading and following the migration of fourth instars. We speculate that these changes in the migration of second instars are driven by seasonal shifts in predation risk from larval cisco (Coregonus artedi) and by the need to minimize spatial overlap with the larger fourth instars.