The project aims to characterize biosynthetic pathways of physiologically essential fatty acids (LC-PUFA) in freshwater invertebrates (zooplankton and freshwater Insecta) for the first time and if any of the explored invertebrate taxa have complete capacity for LC-PUFA biosynthesis. Moreover, hydrogen isotopes of fatty acids enable the first time to unravel how much of LC-PUFA content in pelagic invertebrates and planktivorous fish they have produced endogenously, which is critical in understanding how they can adapt to environmental change, e.g., eutrophication and warming resulting in intensified cyanobacteria blooming. In this project, we study the unknown mechanisms of how zooplankton and fish compensate for the low-nutrition quality diets in lake ecosystems. This may be a crucial mechanism determining how ecosystems can adapt to global environmental change.

2025

2029