Zooplankton Structure and Potential Food Web Interactions in the Plankton of a Subtropical Chain-of-Lakes

Abstract

This study evaluates the taxonomic and size structure of macro-zooplankton and its potential role in controlling phytoplankton in the Kissimmee Chain-of-Lakes, six shallow interconnected lakes in Florida, U.S. Macro-zooplankton species biomass and standard limnological attributes (temperature, pH, total phosphorus [TP], chlorophyll a [Chl a], and Secchi transparency) were quantified on a bimonthly basis from April 1997 to February 1999. Concentrations of TP ranged from below 50 to over 150 μg l. Peak concentrations of particulate P coincided with maximal Chl a, and in one instance a high concentration of soluble reactive P followed. The cladoceran zooplankton was dominated by small species, including Eubosmina tubicen, Ceriodaphnia rigaudi, and Daphnia ambigua. The exotic daphnid, D. lumholtzii, periodically was abundant. The copepods were strongly dominated by Diaptomus dorsalis, a species previously shown to be highly resistant to fish predation. These results, and findings of controlled experiments on a nearby lake with a nearly identical zooplankton species complement, suggest that fish predation may be a major factor structuring the macro-zooplankton assemblage. Zooplankton biomass, on the other hand, may be affected by resource availability. There was a significant positive relationship between average biomass of macro-zooplankton and the average concentration of TP among the six lakes. No such relationship existed between zooplankton biomass and Chl a, suggesting that the predominant food web in these systems may be based on bacteria-plankton, as has been documented in nearby Lake Okeechobee. All of the zooplankton taxa encountered in the Kissimmee Chain-of-Lakes (except Mesocyclops edax) are known bacteria grazers in Florida lakes. Phytoplankton biomass, measured as Chl a, was strongly associated with TP, both within and across lakes. Phytoplankton biomass was not associated with the biomass of zooplankton. These results, when considered in the context of nutrient-addition, zooplankton-exclosure studies on Lake Okeechobee, support the hypothesis that phytoplankton biomass in subtropical lakes is regulated by —bottom-up,“ rather than —top-down“ forces.

Crustacean zooplankton communities in 13 lakes of Yunnan-Guizhou plateau: Relationship between crustacean zooplankton biomass or size structure and trophic indicators after invasion by exotic fish

“…Factors such as bacteria (Havens, 2002), the invertebrate Chaoborus Wissel et al, 2000), and planktivorous fish in the food web (Havens, 2002;Wang et al, 2007a) also partly explained variance of crustacean species distribution.…”

“…Different relationships between zooplankton and tropic status have been attributed to the different physical-chemical features (Tessier and Horwitz, 1990). Ecological processes and food-webs in different lakes can also greatly influence the relationships (Mazumder, 1994;Havens, 2002;Auer et al, 2004).…”

The use of DNA barcodes in food web construction—terrestrial and aquatic ecologists unite!

“…1989;Havens 1992Havens , 2002Huxham et al 1996;Dunne et al 2002Dunne et al , 2004Dunne et al , 2013Allesina and Pascual 2009;Staniczenko et al 2010;Hechinger et al 2011;Mouritsen et al 2011;Thieltges et al 2011;Zander et al 2011;Morlon et al 2014). For terrestrial food webs, host-parasitoid webs have been popular targets of investigation, mainly due to their perceived ease of reconstruction (for reviews, see van Veen et al 2006;Morris et al 2014;Hrček and Godfray 2015).…”

Impacts of climate warming on lake fish community structure and potential effects on ecosystem function

“…Here, the typical cladoceran community comprises small-bodied genera (Fernando, 1994;Meerhoff et al, 2007b;Kruk et al, 2009), and experimental studies have shown that high fish predation underlies the observed patterns in the structure of subtropical zooplankton communities (Havens, 2002;Iglesias et al, 2008). Large-bodied cladocerans (Daphnia spp.)…”