The role of environmental factors in the ecology of tubificid oligochaetes ‐ an experimental study

The effects of temperature, oxygen and substrate on growth rates of three tubificid oligochaetes were examined in the laboratory. Two species Tubifex tubifex and Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri (Tubificidae, Oligochaeta) had similar narrow temperature ranges over which growth occurred, from 10–13°C and both showed a considerable tolerance to extended periods of anoxia, of at least 16 and 10 weeks respectively. However no growth was observed under anoxic conditions. A third common species Ilyodrilus templetoni was sensitive to anoxia and could not survive more than four weeks. There was no evidence of differences in substrate quality affecting growth rates of either T. tubifex or L. hoffmeisteri . The temperature and oxygen responses of these three species may explain their distribution in some lakes of the English Lake District.