Extreme weather events influence the phytoplankton community structure in a large lowland subtropical lake (Lake Okeechobee, Florida, USA)

Beaver, John R.; Casamatta, Dale A.; East, Therese L.; Havens, Karl E.; Rodusky, Andrew J.; James, R. Thomas; Tausz, Claudia E.; Buccier, Kristen M.

doi:10.1007/s10750-013-1451-7

Cited by 54 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The difference in body size was highly significant, and it is a very robust relationship given the high degree of inter-annual variation in physical/chemical conditions and zooplankton composition, which have been linked to droughts and hurricanes during the period of this study (Havens et al, 2001(Havens et al, , 2007Beaver et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…1). In this lake, sampling of zooplankton, temperature, and water chemistry was done at (a) a shallow (1-2 m) near-shore site where there often are dense beds of Chara and that is in close proximity to a region with dense beds of submerged vascular plants including Hydrilla, Vallisneria, and Potamogeton; and (b) at a deeper (5 m) central pelagic site, where there never is submerged vegetation because of high turbidity from mud sediment re-suspension (Havens et al, 2001) and where phytoplankton biomass also is depressed by light limitation (Aldridge et al, 1995;Beaver et al, 2013). We examined data from just one site in each region because despite the large size of the lake, extensive field research in the 1990s indicated that the lake has statistically distinct 'ecological zones' (Phlips et al, 1993) and that within those zones (which include the central pelagic and nearshore sites referenced above) conditions are highly homogeneous in regard to light attenuation, nutrient concentrations, phytoplankton biomass and nutrient limitation.…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inter-lake comparisons indicate that fish predation, rather than high temperature, is the major driver of summer decline in Daphnia and other changes among cladoceran zooplankton in subtropical Florida lakes

Havens

Beaver²,

Manis³

et al. 2015

Hydrobiologia

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Inter-lake comparisons indicate that fish predation, rather than high temperature, is the major driver of summer decline in Daphnia and other changes among cladoceran zooplankton in subtropical Florida lakes Abstract The mid-summer disappearance of Daphnia and the small size of cladocerans in subtropical lakes have been explained as phenomena caused by high water temperature. Recent experimental and observational studies suggest that instead, fish predation could be the cause. In the present study, we evaluated effects of temperature and fish predation by comparing summer occurrence of Daphnia and seasonality of other cladocerans in subtropical lakes where there was (a) vegetation and a high abundance and diversity of planktivorous fish; versus (b) no vegetation, turbid water, and primarily benthivorous and piscivorous fish. Daphnia disappeared from midsummer plankton samples at all locations with vegetation, yet it persisted year-round at the turbid vegetation-free location despite identical water temperatures (all lakes were shallow and isothermal). Body size of cladocerans, in general, was twofold lower at vegetated locations, and biomass was threefold lower. Smaller species dominated at the locations with vegetation, especially in summer. Our results demonstrate that in subtropical lakes Daphnia is able to tolerate high summer water temperatures, and suggest that fish predation may be a more important regulator than temperature for cladoceran size, biomass and taxonomic structure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-lake comparisons indicate that fish predation, rather than high temperature, is the major driver of summer decline in Daphnia and other changes among cladoceran zooplankton in subtropical Florida lakes

Havens

Beaver²,

Manis³

et al. 2015

Hydrobiologia

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“…Argued by some to no longer be a paradox (Cropp and Norbury, 2012), the maintenance of diversity at local, regional and global scales nevertheless remains a fundamentally important question in ecology and evolutionary biology. With reference to phytoplankton communities, a survey of the literature reveals continued interest into these questions from pure and applied perspectives (Beaver et al, 2013;Chust et al, 2013;Larroude et al, 2013). In this paper, I provided a brief overview of the growing field of phylogenetic community ecology in the hopes of encouraging more researchers to apply this framework to outstanding questions in phytoplankton (and zooplankton) community assembly.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic community ecology as an approach for studying old ideas on competition in the plankton: opportunities and challenges

Vamosi

2013

J Limnol

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A longstanding conundrum in community ecology is the frequent observation of long-term co-occurrence of species occupying the same trophic level, especially in relatively simple environments. Hutchinson (1961) is famous for introducing the so-called paradox of the plankton, noting according to the principle of competitive exclusion (Hardin, 1960) … we should expect that one species alone would outcompete all the others so that in a final equilibrium situation the assemblage would reduce to a population of a single species (Hutchinson 1961, pg. 137). Others (Cropp and Norbury, 2012) quote the same principle of exclusion (Gause, 1934;Hardin, 1960) to indicate that the number of species cannot exceed the number of limiting resources; in the case of phytoplankton, this might increase the null expectation roughly by an order of magnitude (e.g., ~15-20 species based on Hutchinson, 1961;Wilson, 1990). Regardless of which value is used, deviations from these expectations in real communities can be quite striking, as evidenced by the species lists for 33 well-studied lakes (see Tab. 1 of Dodson et al., 2000). Phytoplankton species richness, for example, ranged from 20 species to a staggering 234 species (mean=114). Species richness of zooplankton (cladocerans and copepods), which constitutes a second example of the paradox of the plankton (Hutchinson, 1961;Fox et al., 2010;Masclaux et al., 2012), also deviated from the former expectation, albeit less markedly so (mean=13, range 3-25). Many potential mechanisms have been advanced for the coexistence of so many species, including niche differences, trade-offs between competitive ability and predation risk and the storage effect; I will not go into any detail on them, but these and other mechanisms have been amply reviewed elsewhere (Wilson, 1990;Roy and Chattopadhyay, 2007;Fox et al., 2010;Hayashi, 2011).A closely allied area of investigation in evolutionary ecology has focused on mechanisms that may promote the coexistence of closely related species, such as congeners. Because of the considerable evolutionary history shared among congeners, it is expected that they will tend to resemble each other more than distantly related species and, furthermore, that they may compete most strongly for limiting resources (Darwin, 1859). Again making reference to the principle of exclusion, one would predict that the probability of long-term co-occurrence would accordingly be negatively correlated with phylogenetic relatedness. However, congeners are frequently observed to co-occur in local phytoplankton (and other) communities. In Lake Biwa, for example, it is estimated that there are 88 phytoplankton species (Horie, 1984), representing five Classes and 52 genera. Several genera were represented by three or more species, with the desmid Staurastrum being represented by seven species. With regard to zooplankton, this pattern was nonexistent for copepods, very weak for cladocerans and extremely pronounced for rotifers, with 80 species of the latter group being represented by only 32 ge...

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“…The back‐to‐back hurricanes resulted in fivefold increases in suspended solids and increased dissolved inorganic N (DIN) and soluble reactive P (SRP; Havens et al., ). Biomass of bacteria and flagellates was reduced, phytoplankton growth was suppressed due to light limitation, and there was a shift from nitrogen (N)‐fixing cyanobacteria to diatoms (Beaver et al., ). Biomass of crustacean zooplankton increased, possibly due to less predation by sight‐feeding fish (Rogers & Allen, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We further predicted that community‐level properties, including total biomass, ratio of autotrophs to heterotrophs and ratio of protozoa to metazoa, would fully recover in the species‐rich arena via species compensation. Our expectation that any sort of major recovery could occur, despite the intensity of the disturbance and a regime shift (Beaver et al., ; Havens et al., ), was based on knowledge that managed low water levels occurred in the years after the hurricanes. This resulted in shallow water in areas that had lost SAV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of plankton from hurricane impacts in a large shallow lake

Havens

Beaver³

et al. 2018

Freshwater Biology

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We quantified recovery of plankton in a large subtropical shallow lake from the catastrophic impacts of three successive major hurricanes. This assessment was possible because hurricanes passed directly over the lake amid an ongoing long‐term sampling programme that included nearly all components of the plankton, from bacteria to crustacean zooplankton. We compared attributes of plankton 5 years after the hurricanes to a pre‐hurricane period and to a period immediately after the storms. We evaluated both community‐level properties (biomass, biomass ratios, diversity, and dominance of major plankton groups) and species‐level properties (species absolute and relative biomass) at four sites in the lake representing different ecological zones. The hurricanes strongly affected water quality and plankton community structure. The lake experienced a regime shift, losing its submerged aquatic vegetation and becoming homogenous and turbid at all sampled sites. Five years after the storms, chemical and physical conditions recovered across the lake, with a few exceptions. Between 35 and 93 plankton species were lost at the sampling sites, with greatest losses in the phytoplankton. Relative species biomass displayed substantive changes too. Daphnia ambigua did not recover at three of the sites, Polyarthra vulgaris greatly increased lake‐wide, and at a central pelagic site, there was a total loss of heterotrophic nano‐flagellates and a much higher biomass of diatoms than before the hurricanes, despite recovery of irradiance, depth, nutrient levels and other attributes. Most community‐level properties were resilient, returning to pre‐hurricane conditions of total biomass, ratios of autotrophs to heterotrophs and ratios of protozoa to metazoa. This likely happened because of species compensation in the biodiverse community. The exception was at a central pelagic site, where the community‐level properties did not recover and nearly 50 per cent of species were lost. The community resilience, despite a regime shift, may have occurred because of a controlled lowering of water levels in the lake for flood protection, which led to regrowth of lost submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and migration of mud sediments back towards mid‐lake. In this lake and others with a history of high nutrient inputs, shallow depth and flocculent sediments, resilience may be low unless counter‐acting forces are able to push the system back after a regime shift.

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Extreme weather events influence the phytoplankton community structure in a large lowland subtropical lake (Lake Okeechobee, Florida, USA)

Cited by 54 publications

References 73 publications

Inter-lake comparisons indicate that fish predation, rather than high temperature, is the major driver of summer decline in Daphnia and other changes among cladoceran zooplankton in subtropical Florida lakes

Inter-lake comparisons indicate that fish predation, rather than high temperature, is the major driver of summer decline in Daphnia and other changes among cladoceran zooplankton in subtropical Florida lakes

Phylogenetic community ecology as an approach for studying old ideas on competition in the plankton: opportunities and challenges

Recovery of plankton from hurricane impacts in a large shallow lake

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