Diversity and succession of pelagic microorganism communities in a newly restored Illinois River floodplain lake

Abstract

While the success of restoration efforts frequently depends on reconstructing ecological communities, time series observations of community structure over the course of restoration are rare. Here, frequent sampling of bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, planktonic protozoa (ciliates and testaceans), and zooplankton was done along with measurements of select physical and chemical parameters during the first year of ecological restoration of Thompson Lake (TL), an Illinois River floodplain lake not connected to the river. The primary objective was to describe the microbial composition, diversity, and seasonal dynamics in TL and compare these results to similar measurements made in a nearby reference lake, river flood-pulsed Lake Chautauqua (LC). Strong seasonal patterns in bacterioplankton diversity were observed for both lakes. While TL phytoplankton diversity was lower and blooms more erratic than in LC, ciliate richness and abundance patterns were similar in both lakes. Rotifers and microcrustaceans were about 59 more abundant in TL than LC, with copepods and cladocerans exhibiting a fall abundance peak only in TL. When compared to temporal patterns of planktonic microorganisms in the reference lake (LC), the microbial dynamics in a lake recovering from decades of agriculture and drainage (TL) reflect the instability associated with early stages of ecological restoration.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

Beyond Eutrophication: Vancouver Lake, WA, USA as a Model System for Assessing Multiple, Interacting Biotic and Abiotic Drivers of Harmful Cyanobacterial Blooms

“…This successional pattern has become quite common for temperate-zone shallow urban lakes and reservoirs that have experienced increased nutrient inputs and other impacts of accelerating development in their watersheds over the past several decades (e.g., [37,[82][83][84]). Two recent illustrative examples include a set of floodplain lakes in Illinois where the shift from diatom-to cyanobacteria-dominance in summer continued even after more than a year of restoration efforts [85], and the Tingxi Reservoir in southeastern China where the phytoplankton assemblage biomass rapidly transitioned from >90% diatoms to >90% cyanobacteria, raising serious management concerns for this large drinking water reservoir [86].…”

The Effect of Hydrological Connectivity on the Zooplankton Structure in Floodplain Lakes of a Regulated Large River (the Lower Vistula, Poland)

“…There are two theories describing how the connection between a floodplain lake and a river affects the zooplankton community. Kobayashi et al [21] and Lemke et al [22] observed high zooplankton density in hydrologically isolated floodplain lakes. The inflow of river water to lakes connected with the main river channel can periodically destabilize their environmental conditions.…”

Lake Ecosystem Robustness and Resilience Inferred from a Climate-Stressed Protistan Plankton Network

“…Seasonal succession of microbial eukaryote communities is well documented and has been studied in many lake ecosystems [ 7 , 11 , 74 ]. Our time-series metabarcoding approach confirms previously reported patterns of distinct protistan plankton communities in the cold and warm season [ 3 , 4 , 75 , 76 ] and the absence of phytoplankton spring blooms from the epilimnion in Lake Zurich [ 77 ].…”

“…A major challenge in revealing the complexity of these interactions is to account for the temporal shift in protistan community structures. Species replacement, changes in species richness differences, and succession in protistan communities are largely triggered by natural changes of environmental conditions (such as seasonal changes) and stressors (such as pollution or climate change stressors) [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Singular samplings of individual sites only provide a snapshot of a specific moment in time of the protistan community under study, and, therefore, do not allow to infer the complex interactions in these communities and their reaction to habitat changes.…”