Early changes in the benthic community of a eutrophic lake following zebra mussel (<i>Dreissena polymorpha</i>) invasion

Spear, Michael J.; Wakker, Petra A.; Shannon, Thomas P.; Lowe, Rex L.; Burlakova, Lyubov E.; Karatayev, Alexander Y.; Zanden, M. Jake Vander

doi:10.1080/20442041.2021.2007744

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…2). In previous studies, macroinvertebrate abundance and density often increased simultaneously, regardless whether density was measured in terms of sample area (Ricciardi et al 1997, Spear et al 2022 or total available surface area (Gonzales and Downing 1999). This difference may be due, at least in part, to the fact that ours was the only study to take place in an ecosystem that had not yet been affected by Zebra Mussels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Effects of Artificial Zebra Mussel Druses on Macroinvertebrate Communities and Benthic Carbon Accumulation

Peterson,

Glade,

Hafs

et al. 2023

Northeastern Naturalist

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Dreissena polymorpha (Zebra Mussel) disrupt biological processes throughout aquatic ecosystems in which they are introduced, while simultaneously increasing benthic habitat complexity and food availability by forming druses on various substrates. Numerous studies have investigated the effects of infestation on benthic communities; however, because Zebra Mussels were already established within these systems, it is possible that results were influenced by ecosystem-wide changes in water clarity and suspended nutrient concentrations. In this study, we placed tiles with artificial Zebra Mussel druses in Lake Bemidji, which did not have a well-established Zebra Mussel population at that time, to investigate the effects of benthic habitat modification on macroinvertebrate communities and carbon accumulation. We used control (n = 0 druses) tiles as well as 3 treatment tiles-low (n = 247), medium (n = 428), or high (n = 610) number of individuals per tile-to examine how Zebra Mussel density affected macroinvertebrate communities and carbon accumulation. Macroinvertebrate abundance (ANOVA: P < 0.001) was higher on the treatments compared to the control tiles. However, macroinvertebrate density was highest on control tiles (one-way test: P = 0.002), and treatment did not influence overall community structure (NMDS: P = 0.111) or macroinvertebrate diversity (ANOVA: P = 0.630). Furthermore, organic matter ash-free dry mass (AFDM) density was highest on control tiles (one-way test: P = 0.021), while treatment did not influence invertebrate AFDM density (one-way test: P = 0.098). These results indicate that while macroinvertebrates are able to exploit the additional habitat provided by druses, biological processes such as water filtration, carbon transfer, and benthification facilitated by living Zebra Mussels were also likely crucial in restructuring benthic communities to the extent observed in previous studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Effects of Artificial Zebra Mussel Druses on Macroinvertebrate Communities and Benthic Carbon Accumulation

Peterson,

Glade,

Hafs

et al. 2023

Northeastern Naturalist

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“…Species invasions can sometimes pave the way for future invasions (Spear et al, 2021) or introduce new synergies with existing species (Simberloff and Von Holle, 1999). In Lake Mendota, zebra mussels invaded in 2015 (Spear et al, 2022), potentially confounding the second half of our post-spiny water flea analysis. In a long-term study of Lake Mille Lacs, a spiny water flea invasion had no net effect on phytoplankton biomass as a simultaneous invasion by zebra mussels compensated for the increased grazing pressure (Rantala et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The aftermath of a trophic cascade: Increased anoxia following species invasion of a eutrophic lake

Rohwer

Ladwig

Dugan

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Species invasions can disrupt aquatic ecosystems by re-wiring food webs. A trophic cascade triggered by the invasion of the predatory zooplankter spiny water flea (Bythotrephes cederstromii) resulted in increased phytoplankton due to decreased zooplankton grazing. Here, we show that increased phytoplankton biomass led to an increase in lake anoxia. The temporal and spatial extent of anoxia experienced a step change increase coincident with the invasion. Anoxia was driven by phytoplankton biomass and stratification changes, and anoxic factor increased by 10 days. In particular, anoxia established more quickly following spring stratification. A shift in spring phytoplankton phenology encompassed both abundance and community composition. Diatoms (Bacillaryophyta) drove the increase in spring phytoplankton biomass, but not all phytoplankton community members increased, shifting the community composition. We infer that increased phytoplankton biomass increased labile organic matter and drove hypolimnetic oxygen consumption. These results demonstrate how a species invasion can shift lake phenology and biogeochemistry.

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“…By the summer of 2016 these filter feeders were already covering most hard surfaces in the near-shore zone, resulting in a 300% increase in zoobenthos and phytobenthos abundance by 2018. Zebra mussels became widespread enough to theoretically filter the epilimnion volume every 45 days, but the water clarity of the lake did not change 24 . The impacts of these species invasions on the microbial community are further explored in Rohwer et al .…”

Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

A two-decade microbial time series from a freshwater lake, introducing the limony and TYMEFLIES datasets

Rohwer

McMahon

2022

Preprint

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Lakes are focal points of biogeochemical cycling on the terrestrial landscape, and microbial communities are the machines driving these processes. However, our view into how freshwater microbial communities function is obscured by high short-term variability. We provide a long-term, two-decade time series (years 2000 - 2019) of a freshwater microbial community characterized with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We provide raw sequencing data from 1,023 total sequenced samples and controls, as well as references to paired publicly available environmental data. Moreover, processed, curated, and formatted microbial data are also available for easy download as an R package, along with well-documented functions for subsetting the data by samples and taxa. This processed dataset includes 970 total replicates from 496 samples. The "limony" dataset and its paired environmental data is a complete and ready-to-use resource for ecologists, modellers, educators, data scientists, and others from diverse fields.

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Early changes in the benthic community of a eutrophic lake following zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) invasion

Cited by 13 publications

References 82 publications

Effects of Artificial Zebra Mussel Druses on Macroinvertebrate Communities and Benthic Carbon Accumulation

Effects of Artificial Zebra Mussel Druses on Macroinvertebrate Communities and Benthic Carbon Accumulation

The aftermath of a trophic cascade: Increased anoxia following species invasion of a eutrophic lake

A two-decade microbial time series from a freshwater lake, introducing the limony and TYMEFLIES datasets

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