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Determinantes da diversidade beta: a importância relativa de processos ambientais e espaciais na estrutura de comunidades fitoplanctônicas de uma planície de inundação amazônica

Limnetic aggregates from a turbid delta lake with low dissolved nutrient availability were studied in relation to light and dissolved nutrient availability. Quick light‐attenuation restricts the euphotic zone to the top surface layer of the water column, whereas mineralization processes in the sediment specifically provide dissolved nutrients near the lakebed. This suggests neither the pelagic nor the benthic zone provides the combination of resources required for microalgal growth. Nutrient mineralization in aggregates could bridge this apparent spatial gap in light and nutrients by providing dissolved nutrients in the euphotic zone, promoting microalgal growth. To explore this, aggregates obtained from turbid and phosphate‐limited lake Markermeer (The Netherlands) were exposed in the laboratory to phosphate‐replete and phosphate depleted conditions, at high‐light and low‐light availability. Confocal microscopy revealed that aggregates exhibited alkaline phosphatase activity and contained microalgae, other microbes, and extracellular polymeric substances. The spatial distribution of the phosphatase activity in aggregates largely matched that of chlorophyll a (Chl a)‐lacking microbes, suggesting that these microbes were responsible for the activity. Colorimetric quantification revealed that aggregates exhibited over 1.9‐fold higher phosphatase activity than surrounding water. Two‐day exposure to different light and phosphate availabilities affected aggregate composition. Phosphate depleted conditions resulted in more Chl a‐lacking microbes and more phosphatase activity than phosphate‐replete conditions. Low‐light intensity resulted in higher abundance of extracellular polymeric substances than high‐light intensity. In contrast to aggregates from deep stratified systems, Markermeer aggregates were not enriched with dissolved phosphorus. These results suggest that P‐cycling in aggregates differs between shallow turbid and deep stratified ecosystems.

The characteristics of clayey suspensions, majorly composed of quartz microparticles, in the presence of anionic and cationic polyelectrolytes were investigated using different techniques. A wide range of clay concentrations was used, i.e., from 0.07 to 1000 g/L for different experimental techniques, based on the fact that the clay concentration possible to analyze with selected experimental methods was significantly different. The optimum flocculant to clay ratio was defined as the ratio that gives the fastest initial floc growth by static light scattering or fastest initial settling velocity by settling column experiments. In case of anionic polyelectrolyte, it was observed that the optimum flocculant dose depends on the amount of cations present in the system. For suspensions made with demi-water, a lower optimum flocculant dose (<1 mg/g) than for suspensions prepared in tap water (2.28 mg/g) was observed. At these lower salinities, the supernatant remained turbid in all the experiments and was, therefore, not a good measure for optimal anionic based flocculation. The equilibrium floc size at a given shear rate was found to be independent on the shear history of the floc and only dependent on the current applied shear. This was confirmed by both light scattering and rheological analysis. In case of cationic polyelectrolyte, the optimum flocculant ratio (5–6 mg/g) corresponded to the ratio that gives the lowest electrophoretic mobility for each clay concentration and to the ratio that gives the fastest settling velocity for the highest clay concentrations (12–15 g/L), where static light scattering measurements were not possible. All investigation techniques, therefore, proved to be good indicators for predicting the optimum flocculant to clay ratio. For the lowest concentrations (1.75–8.7 g/L) studied by settling column measurements, the optimum flocculant ratio was observed to increase with decreasing clay concentration, for fixed mixing conditions. The optimum flocculant to clay ratio was not always corresponding to the clearest supernatant and the size of flocs at optimum dosage was dependent on the mixing efficiency. The equilibrium floc size at a given shear rate was found to be dependent on the shear history of the floc and the current applied shear. This was confirmed by both light scattering and rheological analysis.