Consistent, long-term change in rotifer community composition across four Polish lakes

Abstract

Few studies exist documenting changes in rotifer communities over long time intervals. Here, we explore seasonal and long-term variation in rotifer communities in four Polish lakes sampled in 1976 and again in 1997. Rarefied, asymptotic species richness did not differ significantly across study years, although values in 1997 tended to be higher. Simpson's and Shannon-Wiener diversity measures provided inconsistent temporal results, with only the former indicating significantly higher richness in 1997. Sorensen's coefficient of community similarity was as high among lakes in 1976 (0.81) and in 1997 (0.76) as within lakes across the 21-year span (0.77). Nonlinear redundancy analysis of species' abundances revealed large, consistent seasonal changes across lakes, smaller consistent shifts between sampling periods, and small differences between lakes. Collectively, these metrics indicate that species composition was relatively stable among lakes within years and within lakes between years, while species' abundance patterns were far more variable and most affected by season.

Intra and inter-annual structure of zooplankton communities in floodplain lakes: a long-term ecological research study

“…Some studies have suggested that floods lose substantial characteristics in localities where hydrological control is exerted by reservoirs (Kingsford 2000, Dudgeon et al 2006, Steinberg et al 2009); the controlled floods that occur in these managed localities do not produce the same effects as observed under natural conditions. Under regulated conditions, flood characteristics are modified by, for example, reductions in sediment load, large variations in the frequency of the pulse, and reduced amplitudes of water level variations.…”

The response of the rotifer community in Loch Leven, UK, to changes associated with a 60% reduction in phosphorus inputs from the catchment

“…The reduction in rotifer abundance associated with the reduction in TP inputs to Loch Leven is consistent with expectations based on earlier studies of eutrophication impacts. These showed that higher levels of rotifer abundance are associated with increasing levels of eutrophication across a range of different lake types and within individual lakes . The results suggest that total rotifer abundance is a good indicator of both eutrophication and recovery, and that it responds more rapidly to change than other determinands that are used to measure change in water quality more routinely, such as TP and chlorophyll a concentrations.…”

“…), some of which have not linked the responses of the rotifer communities that they describe to changes in environmental pressures over time (e.g. ).…”