Recruitment of Microcystis from sediments to the water column was investigated in shallow (1–2 m) and deep (6–7 m) areas of Lake Limmaren, central Sweden. Recruitment traps attached to the bottom were sampled on a weekly basis throughout the summer season (  June–September). A comparison between the two sites showed that the recruitment from the shallow bay was significantly higher over the entire season for all three Microcystis species present in the lake. Maximum rates of recruitment were found in August, when 2.3 × 105 colonies m−2·day−1 left the sediments of the shallow area. Calculated over the entire summer, Microcystis colonies corresponding to 50% of the initial abundance in the surface sediments were recruited in the shallow bay, whereas recruitment from the deep area was only 8% of the sediment colonies. From these results we conclude that shallow areas, which to a large extent have been overlooked in studies of recruitment of phytoplankton, may be crucial to the dynamics of these organisms by playing an important role as inoculation sites for pelagic populations.

To address the link between the composition and decomposition of freshwater dissolved organic matter (DOM), we manipulated the DOM from three boreal lakes using preincubations with UV light to cleave large aromatic molecules and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to remove colored phenolic compounds. Subsequently, we monitored the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) loss over 4 months of microbial degradation in the dark to assess how compositional changes in DOM affected different aspects of the reactivity continuum, including the distribution of the apparent decay coefficients. We observed profound effects on decomposition kinetics, with pronounced shifts in the relative share of rapidly and more slowly decomposing fractions of the DOM. In the UV‐exposed treatment initial apparent decay coefficient k0 was almost threefold higher than in the control. Significantly higher relative DOC loss in the UV‐exposed treatment was sustained for 2 months of incubation, after which decay coefficients converged with those in the control. The PVP removed compounds with absorbance and fluorescence characteristics representative of aromatic compounds, which led to slower decomposition, compared to that in the control. Our results demonstrate the reactivity continuum underlying the decomposition of DOM in freshwaters and highlight the importance of intrinsic properties of DOM in determining its decomposition kinetics.

No abstract

The mucilage of cyanobacteria represents a unique habitat for both water column and sediment bacteria. In Lake Vallentunasjön, Sweden, the pelagic Microcystis‐associated bacteria constituted 19–40% of the total bacterial abundance, and their contribution to the total bacterial production was 7–30%. In the sediment, the mucilage bacteria constituted only 1–5% of the total bacterial abundance, but contributed with 8–13% to the total bacterial production during the summer. Microcystis‐associated bacteria thus were less active (bacterial production/cell) than ambient water column bacteria, while in the sediments the Microcystis colonies were ‘hot spots’ with enhanced bacterial activity as compared to other sediment bacteria.

Recruitment of Anabaena and Aphanizomenon from the sediments to the water column was investigated in shallow (1-2 m) and deep (6-7 m) areas of Lake Limmaren, central Sweden. Recruitment traps attached to the bottom were sampled weekly throughout the summer season (June through September). A comparison between the two sites shows that the largest part of the recruited cells originated from the shallow site, although recruitment occurred at all depths in the lake. There were also differences between the species, regarding the site as well as the timing of the recruitment. The contribution of the inoculum to the pelagic population was calculated to vary between 0.003% and 0.05% for the different species. From these results we conclude that shallow sediments are more important than deep ones for the recruitment and that the inoculum in Lake Limmaren is small but may still be an important factor in the population dynamics.