The Effects of Inbreeding Depression in Daphnia

Daphnia are planktonic crustaceans also known as water fleas. They help our environment by eating algae and being a natural filter. They also serve as good prey for bigger animals in ponds and lakes. In my experiment I wanted to track inbreeding depression in daphnia because it's a common factor in the decrease of daphnia. Inbreeding depression is when an organism's ability to survive and reproduce is reduced because of inbreeding.

In Daphnia it's seen through the fertility and the fecundity of the eggs. I had 2 tanks of Daphnia by themselves. They were fed algae and I waited for them to reproduce asexually. After that I counted the number of their eggs through the microscope and then waited for them to hatch. I would count the number of eggs that hatched, then continue the experiment with the new generation