Reproductive Strategies of Non-Native Planktonic Crustaceans in the South-Eastern Baltic Sea

Abstract

Three nonnative crustacean species have been registered in the zooplankton of the South-Eastern Baltic Sea (SEB). Calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa and cladoceran Cercopagis pengoi have established sustainable self-reproducing populations in the SEB. The successful development of the A. tonsa population is supported by its ability to produce diapausing eggs under unfavorable temperature conditions. The reproductive strategy of C. pengoi in the environmental conditions of the SEB is aimed at increasing the gamogenesis period along with the growing production of the resting eggs. In the SEB environmental conditions, parthenogenesis is the dominant type of reproduction of cladoceran Evadne anonyx.