Increased Temperature Due to Global Warming Alters the Respiratory Potential in Aquatic Organisms from an Oligotrophic Lake (original) (raw)
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Freshwater Biology, 1984
1. The influence of temperature on in vivo photosynthelic and in vitro respiratory electron transport system (ETS) activity was determined over the season for the 3 m (warm-water) and a 20 m (cold-water) phytoplankton communities in Castle Lake. The optimum temperature of photosynthesis at 3 m (A'=20.8'*C) was significantly higher than Ihe average optimum at 20 m (A'=14.8*C). 2. Seasonally, the photosynthetic temperature optimum increased when the blue-green alga Chroococcus limneticiis Lemm. was present. The temperature characteristics of this organism were maintained even after it had settled into the coid water of the hypolimnion. 3. Temperature optima were noi significantly different in experiments conducted under limiting or saturating photosynthetic photon flux densities (PPFD). 4. Short-term (1 h) preincubations with dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) (=80^gNH4NO3-N r') had little effect on the temperature characteristics of photosynthesis while the longer (>24 h) incubations provided by a whole-lake epiiimnetic DIN addition (=75 /ig NH4NO3-N P') significantly lowered the photosynthetic temperature optimum to 12.5*'C. Once this epilimnetic DIN was depleted the optimum rose to 25*C, a value higher than that present before the enrichment, which coincided with the growth of C Hmneticus. 5. Respiratory ETS activity usually began to inactivate between 19 and 20°C. However, when C Hmneticus was abundant the inactivation temperature was often greater ihan 25*C. 6. The average energy of activation (E) and Oio value for the 3 m community (15.9 kcal mol"' and 2.6 respectively) were significantly higher than those at 20 m (14.2 kcal mol"' and 2.4 respectively). Seasonally, the highest E and OK, values of ETS activity occurred during the late-summer bloom of C. Hmneticus. 7. These results demonstrate that the epilimnetic and hypolimnetic phytoplankton communities in Castle Lake are physiologically distinct with regards to their temperature characteristics.
Limnetica, 2020
Phytoplankton structure is more influenced by nutrient enrichment than by temperature increase: An experimental approach upon the global changes in a shallow subtropical lake Climate change is considered one of the greatest threats to aquatic ecosystems around the globe. Among the expected changes, including the dynamics of phytoplankton, the growth of cyanobacteria is often cited. This study evaluated the individual and combined effects of increased temperature and nutrients on phytoplankton community structure in a large, oligo-mesotrophic subtropical shallow lake (Mangueira Lake, southern Brazil). The study was conducted in microcosms to simulate possible scenarios of climate change, alone and in combination with nutrient enrichment (N and P); water samples were collected in winter and summer. Phytoplankton total biomass, species richness and diversity did not vary significantly with manipulation of temperature alone, either in winter or in summer. Only cyanobacteria biomass increased significantly with an increase in temperature, in the winter experiments. In summer, phytoplankton total biomass, species richness, Bacillariophyceae and Cyanobacteria increased significantly with enrichment of N and P. The interaction between temperature increase and nutrient addition did not significantly affect phytoplankton attributes. Temperature increase alone was not sufficient to cause structural changes in the phytoplankton community. Instead, nutrient addition (N and P) proved to be the most significant influence on most phytoplankton attributes, even though turnover of bloom-forming cyanobacteria was not observed. Further studies on the resilience of aquatic ecosystems to climate changes may contribute to the conservation and management of these environments.
Hydrobiologia, 2012
Respiratory CO 2 release from inland waters is a major process in the global carbon cycle, retaining more than half of the carbon flux from terrestrial sources that otherwise would reach the sea. The strongly lake type-specific balance between primary production and respiration determines whether a lake acts regionally as a net sink or source of CO 2 . This study presents two-year (2009, 2010) results of high-frequency metabolism measurements in the large and shallow polymictic eutrophic Lake Võrtsjärv (area 270 km 2 ; mean depth 2.8 m). We estimated the net ecosystem production (NEP), community respiration (R) and gross primary production (GPP) from continuous measurements of oxygen, irradiance, wind and water temperature. A sinusoidal model fitted to the calculated metabolic rates showed the prevalence of net autotrophy (mean GPP:R [ 1) from early spring until August/September, whereas during the rest of the year heterotrophy (mean GPP:R \ 1) prevailed, characterizing the lake as CO 2 neutral on an annual basis. Community respiration lagged behind GPP by approximately 2 weeks, which could be explained by the bulk of the phytoplankton biomass accounted for by filamentous cyanobacteria that are considered mostly inedible to zooplankton, and the seasonally increasing role of sediment resuspension. In the warmer year 2010, the seasonal peaks of GPP, R and NEP were synchronously shifted nearly 1 month earlier compared with 2009. The strong stimulating effect of temperature on both GPP and R and its negative effect on NEP revealed by the multiple regression analysis suggests increasing metabolic rates and increasing heterotrophy in this lake type in a warmer climate.
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Phytoplankton usually responds directly and fast to environmental fluctuations, making them useful indicators of lake ecosystem changes caused by various stressors. Here, we examined the phytoplankton community composition before, during, and after a simulated 1-month heat wave in a mesocosm facility in Silkeborg, Denmark. The experiment was conducted over three contrasting temperature scenarios (ambient (A0), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change A2 scenario (circa +3 °C, A2) and A2+ %50 (circa +4.5 °C, A2+)) crossed with two nutrient levels (low (LN) and high (HN)) with four replicates. The facility includes 24 mesocosms mimicking shallow lakes, which at the time of our experiment had run without interruption for 11 years. The 1-month heat wave effect was simulated by increasing the temperature by 5 °C (1 July to 1 August) in A2 and A2+, while A0 was not additionally heated. Throughout the study, HN treatments were mostly dominated by Cyanobacteria, whereas LN treatments were ...
Journal of Applied Ecology, 2003
Climate is changing. Predictions are for at least a 3 ° C rise in mean temperature in northern Europe over the next century. Existing severe impacts of nutrients and inappropriate fish stocking in freshwater systems remain. 2. Effects of warming by 3 ° C above ambient, nutrient addition and the presence or absence of sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus were studied in experimental microcosms dominated by submerged plants, mimicking shallow lake ecosystems. 3. Warming had considerably smaller effects on the phytoplankton community than did fish and nutrients. It had very minor effects on chlorophyll a and total phytoplankton biovolume. However, it significantly decreased the biovolumes of Cryptophyceae (a major component in the controls) and Dinophyceae. Contrary to expectation, warming did not increase the abundance of blue-green algae (cyanophytes). Warming decreased the abundances of Cryptomonas erosa (Cryptophyceae) and Oocystis pusilla (Chlorophycota) and increased those of two other green algae, Tetraedron minimum and Micractinium pusillum . It had no effect on a further 17 species that were predominant in a community of about 90 species. 4. Fish and nutrients, either together or separately, generally increased the crops of most of the 21 abundant species and of the algal groups. Exceptions were for diatoms and chrysophytes, which were very minor components of the communities. Fish, but neither nutrients nor warming, increased the number of species of phytoplankton detected. This was probably through removal of zooplankton grazers, and parallels terrestrial studies where the presence of top predators, by controlling herbivores, leads to increased plant diversity. 5. There was no particular pattern in the taxonomy or biological characteristics of those species affected by the treatments. In particular, there was no link between organism size (a surrogate for many important biological features of phytoplankton species) and the effects of warming, nutrient addition or presence or absence of fish. However, all species were relatively small and potentially vulnerable to grazing. 6. Synthesis and applications. The results suggest that fears of an increasing abundance of cyanophytes with current projections of global warming may be unrealized, at least in shallow unstratified lakes still dominated by macrophytes. However, they emphasize that eutrophication and fish manipulations remain very important impact factors that determine the abundance of phytoplankton and subsequent problems caused by large growths.
Reconciling the opposing effects of warming on phytoplankton biomass in 188 large lakes
Scientific Reports, 2017
Lake ecosystems are deeply integrated into local and regional economies through recreation, tourism, and as sources of food and drinking water. Shifts in lake phytoplankton biomass, which are mediated by climate warming will alter these benefits with potential cascading effects on human well-being. The metabolic theory of ecology suggests that warming reduces lake phytoplankton biomass as basal metabolic costs increase, but this hypothesis has not been tested at the global scale. We use satellite-based estimates of lake surface temperature (LST) and lake surface chlorophyll-a concentration (chl-a; as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass) in 188 of the world’s largest lakes from 2002-2016 to test for interannual associations between chl-a and LST. In contrast to predictions from metabolic ecology, we found that LST and chl-a were positively correlated in 46% of lakes (p < 0.05). The associations between LST and chl-a depended on lake trophic state; warming tended to increase chl-a in...
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Global changes (e.g., warming and population growth) affect nutrient loadings and temperatures, but global warming also results in more frequent extreme events, such as heat waves. Using data from the world’s longest-running shallow lake experimental mesocosm facility, we studied the effects of different levels of nutrient loadings combined with varying temperatures, which also included a simulated 1-month summer heat wave (HW), on nutrient and oxygen concentrations, gross ecosystem primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER), net ecosystem production (NEP) and bacterioplankton production (BACPR). The mesocosms had two nutrient levels (high (HN) and low (LN)) combined with three different temperatures according to the IPCC 2007 warming scenarios (unheated, A2 and A2 + 50%) that were applied for 11 years prior to the present experiment. The simulated HW consisted of 5 °C extra temperature increases only in the A2 and A2 + 50% treatments applied from 1 July to 1 August 2014. ...
Lancet, 2011
Climatic change is recognized as an important factor capable of influencing the structural properties of aquatic ecosystems. Lake ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate change. Several long time-series studies have shown close coupling between climate, lake thermal properties and individual organism physiology, population abundance, community structure, and food-web structure. Understanding the complex interplay between climate, hydrological variability, and ecosystem structure and functioning is essential to inform water resources risk assessment and fisheries management. The purpose of this paper is to present the current understanding of climate-induced changes on lake ecosystem phenology. We first review the ability of climate to modulate the interactions among lake hydrodynamics, chemical factors, and food-web structure in several north temperate deep lakes (e.g., Lake Washington, Lake Tahoe, Lake Constance, Lake Geneva, Lake Baikal, and Lake Zurich). Our aim is to assess long-term trends in the physical (e.g., temperature, timing of stratification, and duration of ice cover), chemical (e.g., nutrient concentrations), and biological (e.g., timing of the spring bloom, phytoplankton composition, and zooplankton abundance) characteristics of the lakes and to examine the signature of local weather conditions (e.g., air temperature and rainfall) and large-scale climatic variability (e.g., ENSO and PDO) on the lake physics, chemistry and biology. We also conducted modeling experiments to quantify the relative effect of climate change and nutrient loading on lake phenology. These modeling experiments focused on the relative changes to the major causal associations underlying plankton dynamics during the spring bloom and the summer stratified period. To further understand the importance of climate change on lakes, we propose two complementary directions of future research. First, additional research is needed to elucidate the wide array of in-lake processes that are likely to be affected by the climate change. Second, it is essential to examine the heterogeneity in responses among different water bodies. The rationale of this approach and its significance for dealing with the uncertainty that the climate signals cascade through lake ecosystems and shape abiotic variability and/or biotic responses have been recently advocated by several other synthesis papers.
Differential sensitivity of planktonic trophic levels to extreme summer temperatures in boreal lakes
Hydrobiologia, 2012
The stress-size hypothesis predicts that smaller organisms will be less sensitive to stress. Consequently, climate warming is expected to favour smaller taxa from lower trophic levels and smaller individuals within populations. To test these hypotheses, we surveyed zooplankton communities in 20 boreal lakes in Killarney Provincial Park, Canada during 2005 (an anomalously warm summer) and 2006 (a normal summer). Higher trophic levels had larger responses to warm temperatures supporting the stresssize hypothesis; however, rather than imposing negative effects, higher density and biomass were observed under warmer temperatures. As a result, larger taxa from higher trophic levels were disproportionately favoured with warming, precluding an expected shift towards smaller species. Proportionately greater increases in metabolic rates of larger organisms or altered biotic interactions (e.g. predation and competition) are possible explanations for shifts in biomass distribution. Warmer temperatures also favoured smaller individuals of the two most common species, in agreement with the stress-size hypothesis. Despite this, these populations had higher biomass in the warm summer. Therefore, reduced adult survivorship may have triggered these species to invest in reproduction over growth. Hence, warmer epilimnions, higher zooplankton biomass and smaller individuals within zooplankton populations may function as sensitive indicators of climate warming in boreal lakes.
Limnology and Oceanography, 2003
Under conditions of stress, shallow freshwater ecosystems can undergo a state change characterized by the rapid loss of macrophytes and subsequent dominance of phytoplankton. Elevated water temperature may promote such change. Here we report the impact of two warming regimes (continuous 3ЊC above ambient and 3ЊC above ambient during summer only), with two nutrient loadings and the presence or absence of fish, on 48 microcosm ecosystems created to mimic shallow pond environments. We found that warming did not significantly encourage phytoplankton blooms, even in combination with increased nutrients and fish. Instead, macrophyte communities remained dominant. Macrophyte-associated invertebrates (gastropods and ostracods) increased in numbers in the warmed microcosms, potentially helping to stabilize the macrophyte communities. Nevertheless, warming produced trends in water chemistry that could be problematic. It increased phosphorus concentrations, total alkalinity, and conductivity. It decreased pH and oxygen saturation and increased the frequency of severe deoxygenation. These trends were largely independent of the other experimental treatments and support the suggestion that moderate warming has the potential to exacerbate existing eutrophication problems.