Freshwater Mussel Assemblages at the Lotic-Lentic Interface along Lake Erie

Krebs, Robert A.; Prescott, Trevor J.; Clapham, W. B.; Klarer, David M.

doi:10.4003/006.036.0104

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…However, to date, limited work has been conducted on the macrobenthos community structure and diversity in river-lake ecotones (Szkokan-Emilson et al, 2011;Patrick, 2014). These results have suggested that the environmental characteristics and macroinvertebrate assemblages of ecotones differ from those in adjacent lakes and tributaries (Krebs et al, 2018;Salvo et al, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

Spatial patterns of macrobenthos taxonomic and functional diversity throughout the ecotones from river to lake: A case study in Northern China

Yang

et al. 2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Macrobenthos taxonomic and functional diversity are key indicators of ecosystem health. River–lake ecotones are key macrobenthos habitats. However, we don’t fully understand macrobenthos biodiversity patterns in these ecotones. We studied water environment, sediment heavy metal contents, and macrobenthos community, which we sampled simultaneously from 29 sampling sites along the Fu River–Baiyangdian Lake gradient in Northern China with five field surveys from 2018 to 2019. Six trait classes resolved into 25 categories were allocated to macrobenthos through a binary coding system. We used the RLQ framework (R, environmental variables; L, species of taxa; Q, traits) and fourth-corner analyses to evaluate the relationship between environmental variables and macrobenthos traits. Finally, we carried out variance partitioning to assess the contributions of environmental variables to variation of macrobenthos diversities. As the results, TN and TP contents in the river and lake mouths were lower than those in the adjacent river and lake, indicating that the river–lake ecotones played a role in purifying the water and buffering pollution. High taxonomic diversity of macrobenthos in the lake mouth and the presence of unique taxa in the two ecotones revealed edge effects, but the macrobenthos abundance and biomass were extremely low compared with those in the adjacent river and lake. We found no significant correlation between the taxonomic and functional diversity indices in the river and lake mouths. Water depth, water transparency, TN, and TP were the main water environmental drivers of macrobenthos taxonomic and functional diversity, explaining up to 45.5% and 56.2% of the variation, respectively. Sediment Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn contents explained 15.1% and 32.8%, respectively, of macrobenthos taxonomic and functional diversity. Our results suggest that functional diversity approaches based on biological traits can complement taxonomic approaches in river–lake ecotones. Furthermore, improving water depth, transparency, eutrophication, and heavy metal pollution will improve macrobenthos diversity in these ecotones and maintain ecosystem health.

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confidence: 99%

Spatial patterns of macrobenthos taxonomic and functional diversity throughout the ecotones from river to lake: A case study in Northern China

Yang

et al. 2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…It is challenging to infer interactions between organisms living in the lotic environment as there is an influx and efflux of nutrients occurring continuously. This turbulence affects the richness and abundance of the organisms living in the algal microbiomes, e.g., [236][237][238]. Even so, data from this study revealed that Cladophora microbiomes were dominated by heterotrophic bacteria (32.57-37.17%), followed by photoautotrophs (8.20-14.68%), micrograzers (2.48-5.13%), parasites (1.52-2.38%), decomposing fungi (0.51-1.97%), and mesograzers (0.18-0.46%), as shown in Figure 7.…”

Section: Common Members Of Freshwater Cladophora Microbiomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Variation of Cladophora Epiphytes in the Nan River, Thailand

Ruen-Pham

Graham

Satjarak

2021

Plants

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Cladophora is an algal genus known to be ecologically important. It provides habitats for microorganisms known to provide ecological services such as biosynthesis of cobalamin (vitamin B12) and nutrient cycling. Most knowledge of microbiomes was obtained from studies of lacustrine Cladophora species. However, whether lotic freshwater Cladophora microbiomes are as complex as the lentic ones or provide similar ecological services is not known. To illuminate these issues, we used amplicons of 16S rDNA, 18S rDNA, and ITS to investigate the taxonomy and diversity of the microorganisms associated with replicate Cladophora samples from three sites along the Nan River, Thailand. Results showed that the diversity of prokaryotic and eukaryotic members of Cladophora microbiomes collected from different sampling sites was statistically different. Fifty percent of the identifiable taxa were shared across sampling sites: these included organisms belonging to different trophic levels, decomposers, and heterotrophic bacteria. These heterogeneous assemblages of bacteria, by functional inference, have the potential to perform various ecological functions, i.e., cellulose degradation, cobalamin biosynthesis, fermentative hydrogen production, ammonium oxidation, amino acid fermentation, dissimilatory reduction of nitrate to ammonium, nitrite reduction, nitrate reduction, sulfur reduction, polyphosphate accumulation, denitrifying phosphorus-accumulation, and degradation of aromatic compounds. Results suggested that river populations of Cladophora provide ecologically important habitat for microorganisms that are key to nutrient cycling in lotic ecosystems.

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“…The Grand River and Sydenham River (southwest Ontario, Canada) eDNA surveys described by Balasingham et al () focused on fish taxa; however, those tributaries are also good candidates for invertebrate‐based eDNA metabarcoding studies as they harbor uniquely diverse biological communities such as a variety of mollusks endemic to these areas (Gillis et al, ; Metcalfe‐Smith, Di Maio, Staton, & DeSolla, ; Metcalfe‐Smith, Mackie, Di Maio, & Staton, ). Additionally, these rivers are prime candidates for ongoing introductions and range expansions of AIS, including those moving upstream from the river mouths at lakes Erie and St. Clair, through jump dispersal, or downstream diffusion (Krebs, Prescott, Clapham, & Klarer, ; Levri & Clark, ; Levri & Jacoby, ; Levri, Kelly, & Love, ). Balasingham et al, () proposed that invasive fishes were moving upstream from the Great Lakes and found eDNA from the AIS round goby ( Neogobius melanostomus ) at many sites spanning nearly the entirety of the main reaches of both rivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using environmental DNA metabarcoding to map invasive and native invertebrates in two Great Lakes tributaries

2019

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Background Aquatic invasive species (AIS) threaten ecosystems and native species. Methods To determine spatial distributions of at‐risk native taxa and AIS in two biologically diverse Laurentian Great Lakes tributaries, we extracted environmental DNA (eDNA) from water samples and used a universal PCR primer set targeting the CO1 gene for metabarcoding of selected taxa. We sampled 43 sites for eDNA in each of the Grand and Sydenham rivers in southwestern Ontario. Results We assigned sequences to 49 taxa at the species level and four mollusks to genus level. Detected AIS included two oligochaete worms (Branchiura sowerbyi, Potamothrix moldaviensis), a freshwater jellyfish (Craspedacusta sowerbyi), a calanoid copepod (Skistodiaptomus pallidus), and a bivalve dreissenid mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis). All but D. r. bugensis were previously unreported in these tributaries. Detected native mollusks included one globally endangered species the rayed bean (Villosa fabalis), one provincially listed threatened species the maple leaf mussel (Quadrula quadrula), and several other at‐risk and unique mollusk species of special interest in Ontario, Canada, and the United States (e.g., Sphaerium fabale, Pyganodon grandis). At several sampling sites in each river, AIS eDNA overlapped with or was near to sites with detections of at‐risk native mollusks. Most AIS and some native taxa demonstrated clustered detection patterns within each river. However, in some cases, independent detections of individual species occurred at individual sites within each river that were relatively far apart. Our findings should be interpreted with some caution due to the limitations of the aquatic “universal” primer set and the availability of comprehensive reference sequence databases. Conclusion Results from eDNA metabarcoding in our study helped reveal invertebrate AIS and at‐risk species distributions and will help direct approaches for conserving biodiversity in each of these Great Lakes tributaries.

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Freshwater Mussel Assemblages at the Lotic-Lentic Interface along Lake Erie

Cited by 3 publications

References 59 publications

Spatial patterns of macrobenthos taxonomic and functional diversity throughout the ecotones from river to lake: A case study in Northern China

Spatial patterns of macrobenthos taxonomic and functional diversity throughout the ecotones from river to lake: A case study in Northern China

Spatial Variation of Cladophora Epiphytes in the Nan River, Thailand

Using environmental DNA metabarcoding to map invasive and native invertebrates in two Great Lakes tributaries

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