Allometric growth patterns and phenotypic plasticity in two Bosmina species exposed to invertebrate predator kairomones

However, the specificity of these responses to different predators remains an important area of research. Here, we present a dataset from a common garden experiment designed to investigate morphological plasticity in two co-occurring zooplankton species, Bosmina coregoni and Bosmina longirostris, from Lake Constance.

Replicated clones of both species were exposed to chemical cues (kairomones) from two distinct invertebrate predators, Bythotrephes longimanus and Leptodora kindtii, as well as a predator-free control. The resulting dataset comprises 236 individual observations, with measurements of key defensive traits (body size, antennule size, mucro size, eye diameter), reproductive output (clutch size), and essential metadata (species, clone, age, life stage, treatment).