Natural water brownification as a shift in the phytoplankton community in a deep hard water lake

Lenard, Tomasz; Ejankowski, Wojciech

doi:10.1007/s10750-016-2954-9

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…This indicates that the interactive effects of multiple lake type factors are important in shaping the response of cyanobacteria to multiple stressors and that a lake type analytical approach could help better predict responses to future environmental change. Differences in the response among lake types is not surprising as the biovolume of cyanobacteria is not just affected by factors that affect the amount of phytoplankton such as phosphorus, temperature and retention time but also by factors that shape community composition such as alkalinity, colour and mixing depth (Lenard & Ejankowski, 2017;Maileht et al, 2013;Ptacnik et al, 2008 T A B L E 2 Linear regression mixed effect models explaining cyanobacteria biovolume and chlorophyll-a concentration. The models explain cyanobacterial biovolume (natural log, mm 3 /L) and chlorophyll-a concentration (natural log, μg/L) in different lake types and result from backward stepwise selection, starting with a model with full interactions between the independent variables: mean monthly total phosphorus (TP, μg/L), mean monthly air temperature (°C) and monthly retention time (days).…”

Section: The Sensitivity Of Cyanobacteria To Multiple Stressors Varmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Colour as an additional lake type factor is an important inclusion, not only because changes in colour can strongly alter phytoplankton biomass and community structure (e.g. Lenard & Ejankowski, 2017) but also because humic substances have increased in lakes in past decades (Monteith et al, 2007). It is interesting that synergistic effects of temperature and phosphorus were only detected in humic lakes (polymictic, humic types for cyanobacteria and chlorophyll-a as well as stratified, medium-high alkalinity and humic type for chlorophyll-a).…”

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of multiple stressors on cyanobacteria abundance vary with lake type

Richardson

Miller

Maberly

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

103

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Blooms of cyanobacteria are a current threat to global water security that is expected to increase in the future because of increasing nutrient enrichment, increasing temperature and extreme precipitation in combination with prolonged drought. However, the responses to multiple stressors, such as those above, are often complex and there is contradictory evidence as to how they may interact. Here we used broad scale data from 494 lakes in central and northern Europe, to assess how cyanobacteria respond to nutrients (phosphorus), temperature and water retention time in different types of lakes. Eight lake types were examined based on factorial combinations of major factors that determine phytoplankton composition and sensitivity to nutrients: alkalinity (low and medium-high), colour (clear and humic) and mixing intensity (polymictic and stratified). In line with expectations, cyanobacteria increased with temperature and retention time in five of the eight lake types. Temperature effects were greatest in lake types situated at higher latitudes, suggesting that lakes currently not at risk could be affected by warming in the future. However, the sensitivity of cyanobacteria to temperature, retention time and phosphorus varied among lake types highlighting the complex responses of lakes to multiple stressors. For example, in polymictic, medium-high alkalinity, humic lakes cyanobacteria biovolume was positively explained by retention time and a synergy between TP and temperature, while in polymictic, medium-high alkalinity, clear lakes only retention time was identified as an explanatory variable. These results show that, although climate change will need to be accounted for when managing the risk of cyanobacteria in lakes, a "one-size fits-all" approach is not appropriate. When forecasting the response of cyanobacteria to future environmental change, including changes caused by climate and local management, it will be important to take this differential sensitivity of lakes into account.

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Section: The Sensitivity Of Cyanobacteria To Multiple Stressors Varmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of multiple stressors on cyanobacteria abundance vary with lake type

Richardson

Miller

Maberly

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The winter phytoplankton may be an inoculum for spring phytoplankton development and cause an early depletion of nutrients, and may also affect the food web in aquatic ecosystems during spring and summer [36,37]. Thus, the role of winter periods in shaping the phytoplankton community in a lake for the whole of the subsequent year has recently been widely discussed [38][39][40][41]. Simultaneously, there have also been some experimental studies which pointed out that selected chlorophytes and cyanobacteria can have similar optimum growth conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of Phytoplankton Communities in Selected Eutrophic Lakes to Variable Weather Conditions

Lenard

Ejankowski

Poniewozik

2019

Water

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It is well-known that recent climatic changes have strongly affected aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we examined the complex factors determining the development of phytoplankton communities during the vegetative growth season in eutrophic lakes located in a temperate zone in eastern Poland. Our analysis enabled us to divide the data into two different periods: years with a cold winter and low total precipitation, and those with a mild winter and high total precipitation. The analysis showed that the soluble and total nitrogen content, concentration of chlorophyll a, total phytoplankton biomass, and biomasses of Cyanobacteria and Cryptophyceae were significantly higher in the vegetative growth season in the year after a mild winter, whereas the soluble and total phosphorus content and phytoplankton biodiversity were significantly lower in these years. Hence, climate warming indirectly led to the loss of biodiversity in the phytoplankton communities in the studied lakes of temperate zone. During this study, we also tested the effects of increases in air temperature and total precipitation on phytoplankton communities over short time periods (14 and 28 days). The results showed that the total phytoplankton biomass and the chlorophyll a concentration were only positively correlated with the air temperature. All of the features described in this study showed how sensitive lake ecosystems are to climatic fluctuations.

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“…Above a concentration threshold of 5-15 mg L -1 , the negative influence of DOC shading on autochthonous primary production exceeds the positive effects of DOC on resource availability via direct supply of fixed C and potential fertilization of autochthonous production (Karlsson et al 2009;Jones et al, 2012;Seekell et al, 2015;Kelly et al 2018). Additionally, increased DOC concentrations can alter phytoplankton species composition and diversity (Lenard and Ejankowski, 2017;Urrutia-Cordero et al, 2017), which in turn can affect the aquatic food web (McGowen et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Boreal lakes with a water retention time between one and three years are particularly vulnerable to precipitation-induced browning as climate change models predicting increasing precipitation in this region indicate that many of these lakes will continue to experience browning in the foreseeable future (Weyhenmeyer et al, 2016). As with streams, brownification in lakes can lead to anoxia and have strong effects on water chemistry, algal community composition, biomass and productivity, as well as the mortality of macrozoobenthos and fish (Sadro and Melack, 2012;Brothers et al, 2014;Lenard and Ejankowski, 2017). Due to longer water residence time in lakes, the effects of sudden brownification events on water chemistry and biota are expected to last longer than in rivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incomplete resilience of a shallow lake to a brownification event

Kazanjian

Köhler

Hilt

2019

Preprint

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Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in many freshwater ecosystems of the northern hemisphere have increased in recent decades due to additional terrestrial inputs. This phenomenon, known as brownification, can strongly alter the physical, chemical, and biological traits of aquatic ecosystems. Extreme rainfall can also cause sudden brownification, known as blackwater events in rivers, while longer term effects on lakes are unknown. Here, we investigated the resilience of a small, temperate, shallow lake to a strong natural flooding-induced brownification event in 2011-2012. From initial DOC and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations of ~12 and 0.04 mg L -1 , respectively, the lake rapidly reached peak DOC and TP concentrations of 60 and 0.35 mg L -1 , respectively. By the following year, water levels had returned close to initial values, yet two additional years of monitoring (until summer 2015) and a more recent sample in spring 2019 showed that the lake did not fully return to its pre-brownification state. Instead, DOC and TP concentrations plateaued at concentrations respectively 1.5-fold and twofold greater than pre-brownification values within less than two years and remained at these concentrations in spring 2019. During this initial recovery period the lake exhibited a decline of phytoplankton and a partial recovery of summer periphyton biomass and production, albeit a full return to pre-brownification values was not recorded in either case. DOC and TP concentrations were positively correlated to phytoplankton biomass and negatively to periphyton. As increases in phytoplankton production outpaced decreasing periphyton production, the net result of this brownification event has been an increase in whole-lake areal summertime primary production. This incomplete resilience to a flooding-induced brownification event implies consequences for several ecological and biogeochemical functions of shallow lakes that warrant further investigation and might contribute to the gradual increase of freshwater DOC concentrations in the northern hemisphere.

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Natural water brownification as a shift in the phytoplankton community in a deep hard water lake

Cited by 22 publications

References 51 publications

Effects of multiple stressors on cyanobacteria abundance vary with lake type

Effects of multiple stressors on cyanobacteria abundance vary with lake type

Responses of Phytoplankton Communities in Selected Eutrophic Lakes to Variable Weather Conditions

Incomplete resilience of a shallow lake to a brownification event

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