Life History Responses and Feeding Behavior of Microcrustacea in Altered Gravity – Applicability in Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS)

Manned space missions, as for example to the planet Mars, are a current objective in space exploration. During such long-lasting missions, aquatic bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS) could facilitate independence of resupply from Earth by regenerating the atmosphere, purifying water, producing food and processing waste. In such BLSS, microcrustaceans could, according to their natural role in aquatic ecosystems, link oxygen liberating, autotrophic algae and higher trophic levels, such as fish. However, organisms employed in BLSS will be exposed to high acceleration (hyper- g) during launch of spacecrafts as well as to microgravity (μg) during space travel. It is thus essential that these organisms survive, perform and reproduce under altered gravity conditions. In this study we present the first data in this regard for the microcrustaceas Daphniamagna and Heterocypris incongruens. We found that after hyper-g exposure (centrifugation) approximately one third of the D. magna population died within one week (generally indicating that possible belated effects have to be considered when conducting and interpreting experiments during which hyper-g occurs). However, suchlike and even higher losses could be countervailed by the surviving daphnids’ unaltered high reproductive capacity. Furthermore, we can show that foraging and feeding behavior of D. magna (drop tower) and H. incongruens (parabolic flights) are rarely altered in μg. Our results thus indicate that both species are suitable candidates for BLSS utilized in space.