Variability in feeding of Gammarus pulex: moving towards a more standardised feeding assay

BACKGROUND: Focusing on feeding as an endpoint in ecotoxicological studies is a useful and sensitive tool to detect sub-lethal impacts on individual organisms with relevance to higher levels of organisation (i.e. population and ecosystem levels). We conducted a series of experiments to identify and quantify the influence of parasite infection and food source, food quality, body size and acclimation time prior to testing on the feeding rate of individual Gammarus pulex. Our aim was to assess the variability in feeding rate associated with these factors to support design of feeding assays with individual organisms at a daily resolution. RESULTS: Overall, feeding rates varied enormously across experiments, and all factors were confirmed to have a significant impact on feeding rates. Reducing the intra-specific variability by using a particular sub-group within each tested factor (except acclimation time) was found to be indispensable for a successful feeding assay with individual organisms. Focusing on organisms of a sub-group in terms of parasite infection and body mass resulted in a reduction in intra-specific variability of up to 50% and 57%, respectively. Using a food source of particular quality reduced the variability by up to 38%. CONCLUSIONS: We presented a list of factors that naturally have an impact on feeding rates of Gammarus, quantified their impact on the variability in feeding rates, discussed their importance for consideration when planning a feeding assay and suggested some additional measurements alongside the feeding assay to improve data comparison between studies.