Ecosystem analysis based on biomass size distributions: A case study of a plankton community in a large lake

Gaedke, Ursula

doi:10.4319/lo.1993.38.1.0112

Cited by 97 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and microbial populations have been studied in great detail (Simon and Tilzer 1987;Tilzer and Beese 1988;Geller 1989;Müller et al 1991;Gaedke 1993;Straile 1998;Straile and Geller 1998b). Samples for the present study were taken weekly during the growing season and approximately fortnightly during winter in the central part of the fjord-like northwestern part of the lake (Überlinger See) from 1979 to 1994.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological forcing of plankton dynamics in a large and deep continental European lake

Straile¹

2000

Oecologia

187

221

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The timing of various plankton successional events in Lake Constance was tightly coupled to a largescale meteorological phenomenon, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). A causal chain of meteorological, hydrological, and ecological processes connected the NAO as well as winter and early spring meteorological conditions to planktonic events in summer leading to a remarkable memory of climatic effects lasting over almost half a year. The response of Daphnia to meteorological forcing was most probably a direct effect of altered water temperatures on daphnid growth and was not mediated by changes in phytoplankton concentrations. High spring water temperatures during "high-NAO years" enabled high population growth rates, resulting in a high daphnid biomass as early as May. Hence, a critical Daphnia biomass to suppress phytoplankton was reached earlier in high-NAO years yielding an early and longerlasting clear-water phase. Finally, an earlier summer decline of Daphnia produced in a negative relationship between Daphnia biomass in July and the NAO. Meteorological forcing of the seasonal plankton dynamics in Lake Constance included simple temporal shifts of processes and successional events, but also complex changes in the relative importance of different mechanisms. Since Daphnia plays an important role in plankton succession, a thorough understanding of the regulation of its population dynamics provides the key for predictions of the response of freshwater planktonic food webs to global climate change.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological forcing of plankton dynamics in a large and deep continental European lake

Straile¹

2000

Oecologia

187

221

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For deep, mesotrophic L. Constance, seasonal changes of the trophic transfer efficiency (i.e. the ratio between predator and prey production) were successfully estimated from changes in the slope of the plankton size distribution (GAEDKE, 1993, GAEDKE andSTRAILE, 1994). The applicability of this method to quantify the trophic transfer efficiency to food webs of highly eutrophic system such as L. Müggelsee requires that the basic food web properties do not deviate too strongly from the idealized concept outlined above, which will be evaluated in the present study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomass Size Spectra and Plankton Diversity in a Shallow Eutrophic Lake

Gaedke¹,

Seifried

Adrian

2004

International Review of Hydrobiology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biomass size spectra collate structural and functional attributes of plankton communities enabling standardised temporal and cross-system comparisons and may be rapidly obtained by automated particle counters. To examine how differences in plankton communities from highly eutrophic and more oligotrophic lakes are reflected in size spectra, a three-year time series of biomass size spectra was established for polymictic, eutrophic Lake Müggelsee, based on approximately weekly sampling and microscopic enumeration. The continuous but often bumpy size spectra reflected appropriately the seasonal and trophy-related variations in the plankton composition and growth conditions and the potential impact of daphnids on smaller plankton. We tested the hypothesis that more diverse plankton communities have smoother size spectra than impoverished ones. The spectra of Lake Müggelsee and other more or less eutrophic lakes covaried roughly with the functional diversity in total plankton composition but were unrelated to taxonomical diversity within the phyto-or mesozooplankton. The slopes of the normalised size spectra of Lake Müggelsee were generally more negative than -1, exhibited a recurrent seasonal pattern and were strongly correlated with crustacean biomass. In contrast to less eutrophic systems, slopes could not be used to quantify energy fluxes within the food web due to highly variable algal P/B ratios and frequently bumpy size distributions. The latter indicated stronger deviations from the ideal concept of a steady energy flow along the size gradient than found in e.g. large, mesotrophic Lake Constance.

show abstract

“…However, pelagic predators are well known for their size-selective feeding behavior (Hansen et al 1994). Furthermore, the dependence of GGE on relative prey size plays a crucial role in models on the trophic transfer efficiency along size gradients (Borgmann 1982;Gaedke 1993). Another important aspect of food quality is the biochemical composition of the food (Checkley 1980;Nakano 1994;Sterner and Hessen 1994).…”

Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gross growth efficiencies of protozoan and metazoan zooplankton and their dependence on food concentration, predator‐prey weight ratio, and taxonomic group

Straile

1997

Limnology & Oceanography

375

258

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A comprehensive datasct on the gross growth efficiency (GGE) of planktonic protozoans and metazoans was gathered from the literature in order to (1) identify typical ranges of values, (2) to reexamine the taxon specificity of GGE, and (3) to evaluate the impact of food concentration, predator-prey weight ratio, and temperature on GGE. All taxa (i.e. nano/microAagellates, dinoflagellates, ciliates, rotifers, cladocerans, and copepods) were found to have mean and median GGE of -2O-30%. Contrary to the common practice of using different values of GGE for ciliates and crustaceans, I found that the GGE hardly differed between taxa. Variability within all taxa was high and could only partially be attributed to the independent variables mentioned above. The dependency of GGE on food concentrations was the most reliable relationship identified by multiple regression. Establishing further generalizations regarding the dependency of GGE on other factors was hampered by methodological differences among studies and taxa and the lack of information on other potentially important factors such as the clemental composition of prey items. Future studies of GGE should recognize the importance of these factors.Knowledge of fluxes of matter and energy within ecosystems is a prerequisite for the understanding of food web regulation and of the role that oceans and lakes play in the global carbon cycle (Longhurst 199 1). However, quantifying carbon fluxes reliably in particular ecosystems is hampered by many difficulties. The complexity of aquatic food webs outpaces our capacity to make all the necessary measurements at any one site (Vkzina and Platt 1988). This fact forces ecologists to infer unknown fluxes from those that have been measured. A relative straightforward and therefore common approach is to estimate ingestion rates, Z, of a group of organisms (of a guild) from measured growth rates, G, and a fixed gross growth efficiency, GGE: Z = G/GGE. The crucial ratio GGE (G/Z) is the fraction of prey carbon consumed converted to predator carbon. Despite its importance and abundant use in numerous models and applied studies, e.g. on the estimation of fish yield, the literature on GGE is not well developed and provides no or only a few weak generalizations.Searching the literature of carbon flux modeling, one finds that one generalization in particular has reached modelers' ears: planktonic protozoans are thought to achieve higher GGE than do planktonic metazoans. Modelers are quite aware of high protozoan GGE (sensu Caron et al. 1990a) and usually use protozoan GGE 240% in their models. On the other hand, the conclusion of Calow (1977)-that "Metazoa can achive the best possible levels of efficiency pre- AcknowledgmentsThis study was performed within the Special Collaborative Program (SFB) 248 "Cycling of matter in Lake Constance" supported

show abstract

Ecosystem analysis based on biomass size distributions: A case study of a plankton community in a large lake

Cited by 97 publications

References 38 publications

Meteorological forcing of plankton dynamics in a large and deep continental European lake

Meteorological forcing of plankton dynamics in a large and deep continental European lake

Biomass Size Spectra and Plankton Diversity in a Shallow Eutrophic Lake

Gross growth efficiencies of protozoan and metazoan zooplankton and their dependence on food concentration, predator‐prey weight ratio, and taxonomic group

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About