Rarity of microalgae in macro, meso, and microhabitats

Görgényi, Judit; T‐Krasznai, Enikő; Ács, Éva; Kiss, Keve Tihamér; Botta‐Dukát, Zoltán; Végvári, Zsolt; Lukács, Áron; Várbíró, Gábor; B‐Béres, Viktória; Kókai, Zsuzsanna; Tóthmérész, Béla; Borics, Gábor

doi:10.1080/20442041.2022.2152247

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 86 publications

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“…We observed 326 species in the algal inoculum of which 286 were non-diatoms. According to a recent review, 2489 species were detected in Hungary in the last 150 years 45 . Thus interestingly, a handful of submerged macrophytes and its immediate surroundings contain more than 10% of the regional microflora in a given moment, and as many species as can ordinarily be observed in a pond after many years of investigations 24 , 46 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical structure of the environment contributes to the development of diversity of microalgal assemblages

Lukács,

Szabó,

T-Krasznai

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Aquatic macrophytes form a three dimensional complex structure in the littoral zones of lakes, with many physical, chemical and biological gradients and interactions. This special habitat harbours a unique microalgal assemblage called metaphyton, that differs both from the phytoplankton of the pelagial and from the benthic assemblages whose elements are tightly attached to the substrates. Since metaphytic assemblages significantly contribute to the diversity of lakes’ phytoplankton, it is crucial to understand and disentangle those mechanisms that ensure their development. Therefore, we focused on the question of how a single solid physical structure contribute to maintaining metaphytic assemblages. Using a laboratory experiment we studied the floristic and functional differences of microalgal assemblages in microcosms that simulated the conditions that an open water, a complex natural macrophyte stand (Utricularia vulgaris L.), or an artificial substrate (cotton wool) provide for them. We inoculated the systems with a species rich (> 326 species) microalgal assemblage collected from a eutrophic oxbow lake, and studied the diversity, trait and functional group composition of the assemblages in a 24 day long experimental period. We found that both natural and artificial substrates ensured higher species richness than the open water environment. Functional richness in the open water environment was lower than in the aquaria containing natural macrophyte stand but higher than in which cotton wool was placed. This means that the artificial physical structure enhanced functional redundancy of the resident functional groups. Elongation measures of microalgal assemblages showed the highest variation in the microcosms that simulated the open water environment. Our results suggest that assembly of metaphytic algal communities is not a random process, instead a deterministic one driven by the niche characteristics of the complex three dimensional structure created by the stands of aquatic macrophytes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical structure of the environment contributes to the development of diversity of microalgal assemblages

Lukács,

Szabó,

T-Krasznai

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Measures of morphological complexity of microalgae and their linkage with organism size

Lerf,

Borics,

Tóth

et al. 2023

Hydrobiologia

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In phytoplankton ecology the shape of microalgae appears predominantly as a categorical variable. Using shape-realistic 3D models of 220 microalgae we proposed and calculated six shape metrics and tested how these relate to each other and to the size of the microalgae. We found that some of the metrics are more sensitive to elongation, while others are related to multicellularity. We found a linear relationship between shape measures and the greatest axial linear dimensions of the microalgae. Our findings suggest that there is an evolutionary trade-off between the shape and size of the microalgae. It is important to stress that we found that surface area to volume ratio of the microalgae are hyperbolic functions of the length and volume for each shape. In our study, we demonstrated that the proposed shape metrics serve as suitable quantitative traits, and help to understand better how simple shapes evolved to more complex outlines.

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Functional properties of planktic microalgae determine their habitat selection

Görgényi,

T-Krasznai,

Lukács

et al. 2024

Hydrobiologia

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In this study, we aim to investigate how the functional properties of microalgae help to delineate the major groups of aquatic habitats. Using functional trait-based and Reynolds’ functional group-based approaches similarities of the microalgal flora of all aquatic habitats occurring in Hungary were compared. The habitats covered the whole size spectrum of standing waters (10-2–108 m2) and water currents (watershed: 102–1011 m2), , limnological and chemical properties. Both functional trait-based and functional group-based habitat classifications overrode the hydromorphology-based typology, however, functional group-based clusters showed closer resemblance to limnological-hydromorphological types than clusters created by trait-based approaches both for qualitative and quantitative data. Most of the aquatic habitats that have similar limnological characteristics showed resemblance in the functional properties of their microflora. Rivers and river-related habitats were the most diverse functionally. These were followed by standing waters with extended macrophyte coverage. The small, unique habitats displayed the lowest functional richness. The occurrence of several functional groups in some extreme habitats implies two alternative explanations: first, the habitat template of the groups is wider than defined in the original description; second, detailed information on the autecology of species assigned to a functional group necessitates the creation of new groups specific for the unique habitats.

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Rarity of microalgae in macro, meso, and microhabitats

Cited by 3 publications

References 86 publications

Physical structure of the environment contributes to the development of diversity of microalgal assemblages

Physical structure of the environment contributes to the development of diversity of microalgal assemblages

Measures of morphological complexity of microalgae and their linkage with organism size

Functional properties of planktic microalgae determine their habitat selection

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