Interactions of fish, algae, and abiotic factors in a shallow, tropical pond

Mayer, Tim

doi:10.1007/s10750-020-04375-y

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Due to the fast escape response of copepods, we expected Neoplea would primarily affect other zooplankton, especially cladocerans and ostracods ( O’Brien, 1979 ). We further predicted that zooplankton would reduce the biovolume of total phytoplankton, as phytoplankton is the primary food source for the zooplankton in this system, and because this aligns with most freshwater pelagic trophic cascade research including some of the limited (sub)tropical literature ( Menezes, Attayde & Rivera Vasconcelos, 2010 ; Mayer, 2020 ). Following logically from these first two predictions, we predicted that Neoplea would cause a trophic cascade, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…This subset of studies suggests that the fish- Daphnia -phytoplankton cascade model does not apply well in warm climates, due to the lack of large herbivorous zooplankton and other factors including increased omnivory by fish and increased abundance of invertebrate predators ( Rejas et al, 2005 ; Pujoni et al, 2016 ; Lacerot et al, 2021 ). As a result, the effects of predator removal and addition seem to be more variable in (sub)tropical lakes and ponds, and general predictions remain elusive ( Rejas et al, 2005 ; Pujoni et al, 2016 ; Mayer, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond the fish-Daphnia paradigm: testing the potential for pygmy backswimmers (Neoplea striola) to cause trophic cascades in subtropical ponds

Rakowski

Leibold

2022

PeerJ

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Trophic cascades, or indirect effects of predators on non-adjacent lower trophic levels, are a classic phenomenon in ecology, and are thought to be strongest in aquatic ecosystems. Most research on freshwater trophic cascades focused on temperate lakes, where fish are present and where Daphnia frequently dominate the zooplankton community. These studies identified that Daphnia often play a key role in facilitating trophic cascades by linking fish to algae with strong food web interactions. However, Daphnia are rare or absent in most tropical and subtropical lowland freshwaters, and fish are absent from small and temporary water bodies, where invertebrates fill the role of top predator. While invertebrate predators are ubiquitous in freshwater systems, most have received little attention in food web research. Therefore, we aimed to test whether trophic cascades are possible in small warmwater ponds where Daphnia are absent and small invertebrates are the top predators. We collected naturally occurring plankton communities from small fishless water bodies in central Texas and propagated them in replicate pond mesocosms. We removed zooplankton from some mesocosms, left the plankton community intact in others, and added one of two densities of the predaceous insect Neoplea striola to others. Following an incubation period, we then compared biomasses of plankton groups to assess food web effects between the trophic levels, including whether Neoplea caused a trophic cascade by reducing zooplankton. The zooplankton community became dominated by copepods which prefer large phytoplankton and exhibit a fast escape response. Perhaps due to these qualities of the copepods and perhaps due to other reasons such as high turbidity impairing predation, no evidence for food web effects were found other than somewhat weak evidence for zooplankton reducing large phytoplankton. More research is needed to understand the behavior and ecology of Neoplea, but trophic cascades may generally be weak or absent in fishless low latitude lowland water bodies where Daphnia are rare.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the fish-Daphnia paradigm: testing the potential for pygmy backswimmers (Neoplea striola) to cause trophic cascades in subtropical ponds

Rakowski

Leibold

2022

PeerJ

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“…In our treatments, the light might not have been a limiting factor in the low-turbidity treatments because of the small size of the beakers used as microcosms, since there was not enough volume to create an aphotic zone. We, therefore, compare this situation to natural environments at the surface of the water column, where, besides not being lightlimited, algae exposed to photoinhibition can benefit from microhabitats formed by suspended particles in glacier meltwater-fed lakes (Sommaruga, 2015), estuaries (MacIntyre and Cullen, 1996), or tropical ponds (Mayer, 2020). Further, particulate matter is reported to facilitate algae aggregation (Guenther and Bozelli, 2004), and in our experiment, it may have prevented the cells from sinking and helped in lightcapturing in treatments with less competition.…”

Section: Turbidity Effects On Chlorophyll-a Concentrationsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Responses of Phytoplanktonic Chlorophyll-a Composition to Inorganic Turbidity Caused by Mine Tailings

Nunes

Roland

Amado

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Inorganic turbidity can limit light penetration in water and reduce phytoplankton photosynthesis. Anthropogenic activities such as mining can produce or augment the amount of suspended inorganic particles in water. Recent mining disasters in Brazil have released tons of mine tailings into aquatic ecosystems, with known and unknown negative consequences for aquatic life, biodiversity, and ecosystem services beyond the human and material losses. Here, we investigated the effects of inorganic turbidity on phytoplankton chlorophyll content and composition caused by sediments from two areas in Lake Batata, one natural and the other impacted by bauxite tailings. We experimentally compared the effects of different levels of turbidity (12, 50, and 300 NTU) caused by the addition of sediments from the two lake areas on a chlorophyll-a gradient (5, 15, and 25 μg/L). Inorganic turbidity did not consistently reduce chlorophyll-a concentrations. In treatments with high chlorophyll-a, high turbidity was associated with lower chlorophyll-a concentrations at the end of the experiment. On the other hand, in low-chlorophyll treatments, high turbidity was associated with higher chlorophyll-a concentrations. In treatments with sediments from the natural area, overall chlorophyll-a levels were higher than in treatments with sediments from the impacted area. Phagotrophic algae dominated both in treatments with sediments from the impacted area (Chrysophyceae 34%, Chlorophyceae 26%, and Cyanobacteria 22% of total density) and in treatments with sediment from the natural area (Euglenophyceae 26%, Chrysophyceae 23%, and Chlorophyceae 20%). We conclude that high turbidity does not lead to a reduction in chlorophyll-a concentrations and sediment from the natural area allowed higher chlorophyll-a levels, indicating that impacted area sediment affected more phytoplankton.

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“…As an omnivorous species, tilapia can increase nutrient concentrations in several different ways (Huang et al, 2000;He et al, 2018;Yu et al, 2020). The fish can promote sediment resuspension, and therefore transfer nutrients from the benthic to pelagic habitat, when searching for benthic food or when digging holes for building nest (Jiménez-Montealegre et al, 2002;Vanni, 2002;Mayer, 2020). It can also excrete nutrients directly to the water column (Starling et al, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) on phytoplankton community structure and water quality: a short-term mesocosm study

Zhang

Mei

Tang

et al. 2022

Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.

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Nile tilapia is a highly invasive fish species, deliberately introduced into many lakes and reservoirs worldwide, sometimes resulting in significant ecosystem alterations. A short-term mesocosm experiment with and without Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) was designed to test the hypotheses that the presence of tilapia may affect phytoplankton community structure, increase nutrients availability in water column and deteriorate water quality. Nutrients, total suspended solids (TSS) and biomass of phytoplankton in different size classes (as Chl a) were measured. We found that tilapia increased the total nitrogen (TN), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), NH4 + and TSS concentrations, deteriorating the water quality. In addition, under tilapia presence, the biomass of phytoplankton, as well as that of micro- and nano-phytoplankton, increased leading to a change in the structure of the phytoplankton assemblage. Moreover, a reduction in the biomass of periphyton was observed. Omnivorous tilapia is often dominant in tropical and subtropical waters, and removal of this fish may represent an effective management tool to improve the water quality.

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Interactions of fish, algae, and abiotic factors in a shallow, tropical pond

Cited by 8 publications

References 45 publications

Beyond the fish-Daphnia paradigm: testing the potential for pygmy backswimmers (Neoplea striola) to cause trophic cascades in subtropical ponds

Beyond the fish-Daphnia paradigm: testing the potential for pygmy backswimmers (Neoplea striola) to cause trophic cascades in subtropical ponds

Responses of Phytoplanktonic Chlorophyll-a Composition to Inorganic Turbidity Caused by Mine Tailings

Effects of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) on phytoplankton community structure and water quality: a short-term mesocosm study

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