Growth and Loss Processes of Riverine Phytoplankton in Relation to Water Depth

Köhler, Jan; Bahnwart, Mandy; Ockenfeld, Klaus

doi:10.1002/1522-2632(200205)87:2/3<241::aid-iroh241>3.0.co;2-a

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…With increasing water depth, the vertical component of water motion moves phytoplankton for a longer period in regions with unsaturated light conditions or even within aphotic regions, limiting or even inhibiting algae growth. Evidence for such effects of discharge dependent water depth on riverine phytoplankton growth has also been reported by Köhler et al [25]. Results from HPLC analysis (data not shown) revealed a phytoplankton composition dominated clearly by bacillariophyceae and chlorophytes which are typical for the river Elbe during suboptimal light conditions (spring and autumn) [17].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Influence of the Flooding in 2002 on the Plankton and the Quality of Water and Sediment of the River Elbe over Its Longitudinal Profile

Pepelnik¹,

Karrasch

Niedergesäß³

et al. 2005

Acta hydrochim. hydrobiol.

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The extreme flooding of the Elbe in August 2002 led to resuspension of large amounts of sediment and thus to elevated loads of organic substance in the river. The higher organic carbon concentration was only slightly balanced by increased microbiological self‐purification capability, and this led to regional organic pollution along the river Elbe, especially in lentic water bodies. The remobilisation of sediments also led to increases in the concentrations of some elements by a factor of more than three times. In October 2002, the concentrations of most elements decreased to their 1998 values with the exception of As, Cd, W, Bi and U. One year after the flood an algae bloom and biogenous decalcification led to increases in organic matter and calcite in the suspended matter and sediments and therefore to dilution of most of the elements. However, the concentrations of Cd, W and Bi in the 2002 and 2003 sediments were higher than in 1998.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Influence of the Flooding in 2002 on the Plankton and the Quality of Water and Sediment of the River Elbe over Its Longitudinal Profile

Pepelnik¹,

Karrasch

Niedergesäß³

et al. 2005

Acta hydrochim. hydrobiol.

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“…The net rate of phytoplankton increase along the river was much stronger in May 2011 (0.6 d À1 ). Köhler et al (2002) determined growth rates in the rivers Spree and Warnow up to 0.89 d À1 in May and April. As opposed to the Rhine, chlorophyll values showed a pronounced downstream increase in the Elbe in both sampling campaigns reaching 123 and 174 μg L À1 in the downstream parts.…”

Section: Comparison Of Longitudinal Phytoplankton Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal Plankton Dynamics in the Rivers Rhine and Elbe

et al. 2015

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We compared the longitudinal plankton development in the two large rivers Rhine and Elbe by means of four Lagrangian sampling campaigns performed within the time span 2009-2011. The campaigns revealed low chlorophyll concentrations in the Rhine along a long river stretch (Rhine-km 170 to 854) with maximum values below 5 μg L À1 in 2010. In contrast, the Elbe (Elbe-km 4 to 582) showed high and longitudinally increasing chlorophyll concentrations with maximal values of 174 μg L À1 in 2009 and 123 μg L À1 in 2011. Additional samples of the benthic bivalves along the river stretches revealed high densities of the filter feeders in the Rhine that could potentially explain losses of plankton production. Their densities in the Elbe were significantly lower, making important losses to benthic filter feeders unlikely. However, strong phytoplankton growth was observed during the sampling campaign in 2011 in the Rhine coinciding with a low discharge event. This resulted in an exceptionally high chlorophyll value of up to 244 μg L À1 in the lower river sections, a value that was not reached in the last two decades of continuous water quality monitoring in the Rhine. Even though we cannot fully explain this phenomenon, it shows that phytoplankton has a high growth potential in the Rhine but is usually controlled by other mechanisms. Tributaries represented an additional and important source of plankton biomass and suspended substances in the Rhine, whereas they primarily diluted the plankton concentrations in the Elbe.

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“…No chlorophyll a data were available for a lot of the small creeks and rivers or only for heavily impounded once, so a theoretic approach was applied. It can be assumed that all river types with a residence times more than 7 days were suitable for significant phytoplankton growth, since doubling time of most taxa range between 0.4 and 2 days (KÖHLER et al, 2002). This assumption was tested and confirmed by calculating the theoretical residence time for various selected small river types that were not impounded.…”

Section: Selection Of River Types Suitable For Phytoplankton Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Phytoplankton to Assess the Trophic Status of German Rivers

Mischke

Venohr

Behrendt³

2011

International Review of Hydrobiology

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We introduce the German multi-metric assessment method PhytoFluss for large rivers, based on phytoplankton, which can be used to implement the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). First, we examined the response of chlorophyll a concentration to total phosphorus (TP) at 220 German river sites. Rivers could be assigned to one of four groups, based on the response curves: a) streams with high specific run-off (Rhine, Danube) had the lowest yield of chlorophyll a per unit of TP, followed by b) low yield in small lowland rivers (Trave, Stepenitz), c) medium-sized lowland rivers (Spree) and large central mountain rivers (Main) had intermediate yields of chlorophyll a, and d) streams with low specific run-off (Elbe, Weser) and Baltic tributaries (Penne, Warnow) had the highest yield of chlorophyll a per unit of TP. To define the five trophic status classes of phytoplankton biomass according the WFD, the chlorophyll a boundaries were derived from these response curves at the 75% percentile level. All selected sites were pre-classified with the combined trophic boundaries for TP and chlorophyll a to create the new four taxa composition metrics: The proportions of Chlorophytes, Cyanobacteria, or Pennales and of indicator taxa were selected as indicative parameters. When applying the final PhytoFluss method to 418 years of investigation from 150 German river sites, the percentages in each status according to the bio-component phytoplankton were: high 3%, good 19%, moderate 42%, poor 30%, and bad 5%. IntroductionIn the last three decades, eutrophication has replaced organic pollution as the dominant chemical pressure in large river systems in Europe. Irradiance can be sufficient to support sizeable in-stream production by algae and macrophytes, which frequently colours the large river of Europe green or brown (BUCKA, 2000(BUCKA, , 2002BEHRENDT and OPITZ, 2001;KARRASCH et al., 2001;NEAL et al., 2006). Assessment of the trophic state of rivers and streams should include heterotrophic and autotrophic production according to DODDS (2006DODDS ( , 2007, because both can be essential to determine of goals for management of stream biotic integrity. DODDS (2007) provided a stoichiometric approach to factors that control trophic state in rivers and an approach to detect baseline nutrient levels. Still, there is no com- www.revhydro.com mon method to assess the response of all autotrophic organisms to eutrophication in biomass and composition. Macrophytes, benthic algal biomass and phytoplankton are the main autotrophic organism groups requested by the Water Framework Directive of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC 2000) to be assessed to determine the ecological status of rivers. Up to now most European countries have focused on benthic diatoms (KELLY et al., 2008;ROTT et al., 1999) or also on macrophytes (SCHAUMBURG et al., 2004). There is only one river assessment approach by BORICS et al. (2007) based on composition parameters of phytoplankton developed in parallel to our study.In streams, more excessive than in lakes, a co...

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Growth and Loss Processes of Riverine Phytoplankton in Relation to Water Depth

Cited by 16 publications

References 26 publications

Influence of the Flooding in 2002 on the Plankton and the Quality of Water and Sediment of the River Elbe over Its Longitudinal Profile

Influence of the Flooding in 2002 on the Plankton and the Quality of Water and Sediment of the River Elbe over Its Longitudinal Profile

Longitudinal Plankton Dynamics in the Rivers Rhine and Elbe

Using Phytoplankton to Assess the Trophic Status of German Rivers

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