Effects of ice duration on plankton succession during spring in a shallow polymictic lake

Abstract

Summary 1. Long‐term records of air temperature and ice phenology (ice duration), and phyto‐ and zooplankton time series (1979–1997) were used to study the effects of ice duration on the successional pattern within plankton communities during spring in a shallow polymictic lake. 2. Water temperature in March was significantly lower after cold winters when compared to average or mild winters. Mean water temperature in April was not significantly different after mild, average or cold winters, but showed an overall significant negative correlation with ice duration. 3. Ice duration affected the timing and the magnitude of the peak abundance of diatoms, rotifers and daphnids during spring, but had no direct effects on the timing and maximum of chlorophytes, cryptophytes, cyanobacteria, bosminids and cyclopoid copepods. 4. Plankton groups which appeared first in the seasonal succession (i.e. diatoms, rotifers and daphnids) reached maximum abundance earlier after mild and average winters. The peak abundance of diatoms was negatively correlated with ice duration, whereas that of rotifers and daphnids was independent of the conditions during the preceding winter. 5. Temperature alone was generally a poor predictor of the timing and magnitude of both phyto‐ and zooplankton maxima. Turbulence may be important in the timing and the magnitude of peaks in diatoms, while total algal biomass was the most important determinant for the timing of the rotifer maximum. The magnitude of the daphnid maxima were significantly influenced by water temperature in March and April, and by rotifer abundance. The magnitude of the bosminid maximum was correlated with food availability and predation, whereas the timing of the maximum was more closely related to water temperature in May. 6. We conclude that, as a result of the low heat storage capacity of shallow lakes, the effects of winter on planktonic communities are short lived, and soon overtaken by the prevailing weather and by biotic interactions.

Spring phenological responses of marine and freshwater plankton to changing temperature and light conditions

“…While climate-related phenological shifts toward earlier spring events are widespread across marine and freshwater habitats (Thackeray et al 2010), there is less consensus on bloom magnitude (Adrian et al 1999;Boyce et al 2010;Straile 2002;Taucher and Oschlies 2011). Our analysis confirms the general shift toward earlier blooms at increased temperature and supports predictions that the effects of climate change on plankton production will vary among sites, depending on resource limitation and species composition.…”

“…This supports observations that light is an important trigger for population growth of fast-growing diatoms, which often dominate spring blooms (Sommer et al 1986). In natural systems, diatom blooms are linked to increasing radiation such as after ice breakup in shallow systems (Adrian et al 1999) or after the onset of stratification in deep systems (Winder and Schindler 2004).…”

“…Under these conditions, spring blooms are triggered by correlated increases in temperature and seasonal light availability (Edwards and Richardson 2004;Peeters et al 2007;Winder and Schindler 2004). In shallow, well-mixed systems, phytoplankton blooms are strongly coupled to the external light regime that is influenced by ice cover, cloud cover or day length, and can occur independently of temperature change (Adrian et al 1999;Sommer and Lengfellner 2008). In both deep and shallow systems, increasing temperature and food availability trigger population growth of zooplankton that in turn can feed back on phytoplankton bloom dynamics through tight trophic coupling (Sommer and Lewandowska 2011).…”

Environmental Impacts—Lake Ecosystems

“…Coherent changes in ice phenology (see Sect. 10.2.2), and changes in spring and early summer plankton phenology in the North Sea region in recent years have been attributed to climate change (Adrian et al 1999;Weyhenmeyer et al 1999;Gerten and Adrian 2000;Straile 2002) as synchronised by large-scale climatic signals such as the NAO (for a review see Blenckner et al 2007;Gerten and Adrian 2002a;Straile et al 2003). While indirect temperature effects such as early ice-off, which improves underwater light conditions have brought forward the start of algal bloom development in spring, direct temperature effects caused changes in the timing of rotifer and daphnid spring maxima (Gerten and Adrian 2000;Adrian et al 2006;Straile et al 2012) cascading into an earlier clear water phase (Straile 2002).…”

Trends in Research on the Possible Effects of Climate Change Concerning Aquatic Ecosystems With Special Emphasis on the Modelling Approach

“…Thus, we should not neglect the winter termoften neglected due to the lower biological activity -to include in the study having particular importance in temperate lakes (global warming observed in the 20 th century is strongly manifested in the weather conditions of the winter term). In response to that the duration of ice cover period (Adrian et al 1999, Weyhenmeyer 1999, and also timing and intensity of winter mixing caused by wind (Geadke et al 1998), which has a significant effect on spring phytoplankton bloom formation, vary in lakes.…”