We studied three-dimensional distribution patterns of temperature, phyto-and zooplankton, and fish in the large, prealpine Lake Constance during spring 2007. A strong westerly wind induced an intense eastward displacement of epilimnetic water and upwelling of hypolimnetic water in the western part of the lake. This led to the formation of an internal front separating cold, hypolimnetic water depleted of chlorophyll in the western part from epilimnetic, warm water with high chlorophyll concentrations in the eastern part. Hydroacoustic detection of zooplankton (by Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) and juvenile fish (by echosounding) revealed both to be passively transported by the wind. Consequently, zooplankton and fish showed comparable horizontal distributions as temperature and chlorophyll. During periods of low wind velocities (,6 m s 21 ), water temperature was more evenly distributed, whereas phytoplankton distribution was still heterogeneous, probably because of local differences in resource supply. The relative influence of biotic factors for the distribution of organisms increased when external forcing was low. At periods with weak wind forcing, phytoplankton typically showed highest concentrations in the metalimnion, where zooplankton also aggregated in thin layers. In conclusion, we found spatial distributions of temperature and organisms to be strongly controlled by wind forcing when wind velocities were sufficiently high, whereas the importance of internal biotic factors for distribution of organisms increased when wind velocities were less strong. Abiotic factors appeared to act over relatively large spatial scales and affected distributions within the entire ecosystem, whereas biotic factors affected distributions of algae, zooplankton, and fish on a more local scale.

Temporal variability of vertical zooplankton distributions is analyzed on timescales from minutes to days based on 7 months of acoustic backscatter strength data in Lake Constance. A comparison with net samples reveals that most of the observed variability in volume backscatter strength is associated with variations in the abundance of large Daphnia. Diel vertical migration (DVM) of zooplankton was a persistent feature throughout the entire period of observation, while amplitude, daily migration timing, and migration speed varied with season. This active motion of zooplankton was affected by internal waves on a broad range of timescales. In spring, the maximum depth of DVM follows variations in isothermal depths associated with long-wavelength, basin-scale internal waves. Propagating, short-wavelength, internal waves with comparable amplitudes affect vertical zooplankton distributions on timescales of minutes. Spectral analyses of zooplankton abundance, temperature, and current velocity reveal close correspondence of spectral peaks and slopes, indicating that up to timescales of several days, the only temporal scale at which biological processes dominate over passive transport is associated with DVM. Whereas horizontal transport dominates at long periods, vertical transport occurs only at short timescales.