The presence of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs (AAPs) was recently reported from various marine environments; however, there is little information regarding their distribution in fresh waters. We surveyed a number of freshwater systems in central Europe, by infra-red fluorometry, infra-red epifluorescence microscopy, fluorescence emission spectroscopy and pigment analyses. AAPs were found to be abundant in several oligotrophic and mesotrophic lakes (50-400 ng of bacteriochlorophyll a l(-1), 10-80% of bacterial biomass), while in more eutrophized water bodies they represented a negligible part of the total microbial community (< 1%). The observed freshwater AAPs were morphologically diverse and different from previously observed marine species. Under temperate European climatic conditions, AAP populations undergo strong seasonal changes in terms of both abundance and species composition, with the maximum biomass in summer and the minimum in winter. In the mountain lakes Certovo and Plesné, AAPs contributed more than one half of total bacterial biomass during their summer maximum. These results show that photoheterotrophic bacteria represent an important part of the microbial community in many freshwater systems.

Despite the importance of shallow lakes worldwide, knowledge of microbial components, the base of their food webs, remains scarce. To close this gap, we investigated planktonic microbial food webs, in particular protistan bacterivory (for both ciliates and heterotrophic nanoflagellates [HNF]), in 10 shallow hypertrophic fishponds in South Bohemia (Czech Republic). We used fluorescently labeled bacteria as bacterivory tracers to estimate how abundant protistan populations in fishponds (4–25 × 103 HNF mL−1 and 55–770 ciliates mL−1) contribute to total bacterial mortality. Fluorescence microscopy, innovative image processing tools, and quantitative protargol staining were combined to detect major bacterivorous and omnivorous ciliate taxa. We quantified bacterial production, bacterivory by individual ciliate species, total ciliates, and total protistan bacterivory in all fishponds. On average, ciliate bacterivory was comparable to that of HNF, accounting for 56% and 44% of total protistan grazing, respectively. We found that primarily bacterivorous Peritrichia (genera Vorticella, Epistylis) and Scuticociliata (Cyclidium spp.) contributed only moderately (mean 26%) to total ciliate bacterivory. Unexpectedly, but highly abundant omnivorous Halteria/Pelagohalteria (Stichotrichia) and, to a lesser extent, also omnivorous Rimostrombidium spp. (Oligotrichia) contributed significantly more (mean 71%) to total ciliate bacterivory than typical bacterivorous taxa. This suggests that unselective grazers, which feed on a broader size spectrum from bacteria to small algae, may have a considerable competitive advantage in hypertrophic environments rich in small particles. Moreover, a meta‐analysis of available literature data supports our hypothesis that the role of ciliate bacterivory increases significantly, relative to HNF bacterivory, along a trophic gradient toward hypertrophic habitats.

The management of Czech fish ponds changed little from the Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century. The intensification of fish production was initiated during the first half of the twentieth century. During the 1930s, liming and manuring of the ponds became common. A greater density of stocking led to the use of artificial feeds in the form of pellets and grain. These changes in pond management have led to an increase in fish production from ≈ 50 to > 500 kg ha−1 year−1 over the last 5 decades. At the same time, the quality of the water and sediments has been deteriorating, and the functioning of the pond ecosystem has been disturbed. There are now massive blooms of phytoplankton, especially cyanobacteria, accompanied by great fluctuations in the oxygen concentration and pH. Data collected since 1925, when systematic research on the ponds started, allow the mechanisms responsible for the changes to be traced.

The soils adjacent to an area of historical mining, ore processing and smelting activities reflects the historical background and a mixing of recent contamination sources. The main anthropogenic sources of metals can be connected with historical and recent mine wastes, direct atmospheric deposition from mining and smelting processes and dust particles originating from open tailings ponds. Contaminated agriculture and forest soil samples with mining and smelting related pollutants were collected at different distances from the source of emission in the Pb-Zn-Ag mining area near Olkusz, Upper Silesia to (a) compare the chemical speciation of metals in agriculture and forest soils situated at the same distance from the point source of pollution (paired sampling design), (b) to evaluate the relationship between the distance from the polluter and the retention of the metals in the soil, (c) to describe mineralogy transformation of anthropogenic soil particles in the soils, and (d) to assess the effect of deposited fly ash vs. dumped mining/smelting waste on the mobility and bioavailability of metals in the soil. Forest soils are much more affected with smelting processes than agriculture soils. However, agriculture soils suffer from the downward metal migration more than the forest soils. The maximum concentrations of Pb, Zn, and Cd were detected in a forest soil profile near the smelter and reached about 25 g kg(- 1), 20 g kg(- 1) and 200 mg kg(- 1) for Pb, Zn and Cd, respectively. The metal pollutants from smelting processes are less stable under slightly alkaline soil pH then acidic due to the metal carbonates precipitation. Metal mobility ranges in the studied forest soils are as follows: Pb > Zn ≈ Cd for relatively circum-neutral soil pH (near the smelter), Cd > Zn > Pb for acidic soils (further from the smelter). Under relatively comparable pH conditions, the main soil properties influencing metal migration are total organic carbon and cation exchange capacity. The mobilization of Pb, Zn and Cd in soils depends on the persistence of the metal-containing particles in the atmosphere; the longer the time, the more abundant the stable forms. The dumped mining/smelting waste is less risk of easily mobilizable metal forms, however, downward metal migration especially due to the periodical leaching of the waste was observed.

Fishponds were and are purposeful water structures. Fish production is their main function and rational management is an inevitable condition for their existence. The present high level of fishpond eutrophication results in nutrients overloading. The effect of the high level of nutrients is emphasized by top-down control of zooplankton by high fish stock densities. Currently the zooplankton is represented by small species such as nauplii, small cyclopoid copepods, small species of Cladocera and rotifers that are not so effective filtrators. The high eutrophic level brings about high primary production (mostly with predominance of inedible Cyanophytes) which cannot be used by this type of zooplankton. The main consequences of high eutrophication are large fluctuations in basic environmental parameters and a decrease in production effectivity. It is expected that the utilization efficiency of the enormous primary production through zooplankton into fish production is low. Therefore, maintaining ecological stability and healthy, sound functioning of the ecosystem, meaning without considerable fluctuations, represents an important task in sustainable fishpond management.