| dc.description.abstract | Understanding how biological components respond to environmental changes could be insightful to predict ecosystem trajectories under different climate scenarios. Zooplankton are key components of marine ecosystems and changes in their dynamics could have a major impact on ecosystem structures. I developed an individual-based model of a coastal calanoid copepod species Acartia tonsa to examine the impacts of varying environmental factors on population dynamics, and to explore the role of individual variability in sustaining a population under changing temperature, food concentration and salinity. Abundance, egg production and population survival were used to measure population success. Results suggested that A. tonsa benefits from a high level of individual variability under extreme environmental conditions including unfavorable temperature, salinity, as well as low food concentration, and selection for fast-growers becomes stronger with increasing environmental stress. Multiple regression analyses showed that temperature, food concentration, salinity and individual variability have significant effects on survival of A. tonsa. These results suggest that environmental factors have significant influence on zooplankton population dynamics, and individual variability has important implications for population resilience under unfavorable conditions. Given that marine ecosystems are at risk from drastic environmental changes, understanding how individual variability sustains populations could increase our capability to predict population dynamics in a changing environment. | en |
