Microbial nutrient limitation in prairie saline lakes with high sulfate concentration

Waker, Marley J.; Robarts, Richard D.

doi:10.4319/lo.1995.40.3.0566

Cited by 37 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Healey and Hendzel 1980;Pettersson 1980;Chrost and Overbeck 1987;Newman et al 1994;Waiser and Robarts 1995) revealed that the rates in the eastern Mediterranean were generally very low, tentatively implying P sufficiency. However, we found no comparative data from oligotrophic oceans.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of microbial P limitation in the eastern Mediterranean

Zohary

Robarts

1998

Limnology & Oceanography

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In this study we experimentally tested the hypothesis that phosphorus was the primary nutrient limiting phytoplankton and bacterial growth in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and examined the spatial variability in P limitation during winter. Complementary measurements were employed using water sampled during January 1995 from nine pelagic stations east of the Straits of Sicily. Ambient concentrations of inorganic P (P,) in the upper 50 m of the water column in seven of the stations were 20-40 nM. The upper limit of bioavailable P ranged from 6 to 18 nM, suggesting severe P shortage. Orthophosphate turnover time ranged from 2 to 7 h in those P,-depleted waters. In nutrient-enrichment bioassays using subsurface water from the Ionian and Levantine basins, P addition caused significant increases in bacterial activity, bacterial numbers, and chlorophyll a relative to unenriched controls. The addition of NH,' + Fe + EDTA did not have these effects. In a similar bioassay using Cretan water, microbial growth was obtained even in the unemriched controls, suggesting that other factors (e.g. grazing, light) were influential. Higher ambient P, concentrations were encountered in the Cretan Sea (90 nM) and in the core of the Rhodes gyre (210 nM), where our sampling coincided with a convective mixing event. In those stations, P sufticiency was indicated. We concluded that in the pelagic waters of the eastern Mediterranean in winter, P was the primary limiting nutrient when other factors (such as light or grazing) did not control microbial biomass or activity. In ultra-oligotrophic waters, a delicate and dynamic balance differentiates between times when the microbial populations are nutrient limited and times when growth becomes limited by other factors. We caution that the interpretation of data obtained using conventional methods that were developed and tested in more enriched systems may not be valid in ultra-oligotrophic systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of microbial P limitation in the eastern Mediterranean

Zohary

Robarts

1998

Limnology & Oceanography

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“…DOM can complex with nutrients and alter their bioavailability (Hessen and Tranvik 1998;Bushaw-Newton and Moran 1999;Findlay and Sinsabaugh 2003). In addition, the ionic composition and high salinity of saline lakes affects nutrient cycling and availability, as well as uptake by algae (Caraco et al 1989;Waiser and Robarts 1995;Saros and Fritz 2000). Chlorophyll concentrations may be affected by intense zooplankton grazing on standing phytoplankton crops in saline lakes (Anderson 1958), and limited information is available on rates of primary production rather than chlorophyll concentrations alone (Armstrong et al 1966;Hammer 1981).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fossil algal records from these lakes are often used to reconstruct drought frequency and severity over time scales ranging from centuries to millennia (Cumming and Smol 1993;Laird et al 1998;. However, although some of these lakes are limited by phosphorus or trace metals (Waiser and Robarts 1995;Evans and Prepas 1997), broad trends in the factors that control algal production across suites of these systems are not yet apparent (Bierhuizen and Prepas 1985;Campbell and Prepas 1986). Commonly, these lakes do not follow the paradigm established for freshwater lakes (yV aiser and Robarts 1995) in which spring total phosphorus (TP) concentrations predict summer chlorophyll a (ChI a) concentrations (Dillon and Rigler 1974;Smith 1979).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although total nutrient concentrations are high, a substantial fraction of the nutrients may not be bioavailable (Waiser and Robarts 1995), particularly because concentrations of dissolved organic material (DOM) are very high in these lakes, ranging from 20 to 800 mg C·L-1 (measured as dissolved organic carbon (DOC); Curtis and Adams 1995;Evans and Prepas 1997;Arts et al 2000). DOM can complex with nutrients and alter their bioavailability (Hessen and Tranvik 1998;Bushaw-Newton and Moran 1999;Findlay and Sinsabaugh 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phytoplankton productivity across prairie saline lakes of the Great Plains (USA): a step toward deciphering patterns through lake classification models

Salm

Saros

Fritz

et al. 2009

Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci.

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We investigated patterns of primary production across prairie saline lakes in the central and northern Great Plains of the United States. Based on comparative lake sampling in 2004, seasonal predictors of algal primary productivity were identified within subsets of similar lakes using a combination of Akaike's information criterion (AIC) and classification and regression trees (CART). These models indicated complex patterns of nutrient limitation by nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and iron (Fe) within different lake groups. Nutrient enrichment assays (control, + Fe, + N, + P, + N + P) were performed in spring and summer of 2006 to determine if phytoplankton in selected lakes followed predicted patterns of nutrient limitation. Both the comparative lake sampling and experimental results indicated that N limitation was widespread in these prairie lakes, with evidence for secondary P limitation in certain lakes. In the experiments, iron did not stimulate primary production. Our results suggest that given the diverse geochemical nature of these lakes, classification models that separate saline lakes into subsets may be an effective method for improving predictions of algal production.

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“…Morris & Lewis (1992) determined that bacterial production in a mesotrophic reservoir never increased with the addition of C (glucose and acetate) alone, but did increase with the addition of P alone, or P with C, or N. Jansson et al (1996) demonstrated that bacteria in a humic lake were P limited for most of the ice-free season. P limitation of bacteria has also been found in coastal environments (Zweifel 1999), the open ocean (Rivkin & Anderson 1997), and in saline prairie lakes (Waiser & Robarts 1995).…”

Section: Nutrient Addition Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sestonic bacterial nutrient limitation in a northern temperate river and the impact of pulp-mill effluents

Mohamed

Robarts²

2003

Aquat. Microb. Ecol.

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Bacterial growth limitation and the effect of pulp-mill effluents (PME) on sestonic bacteria were studied in a northern temperate river (the Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada). Nutrient addition experiments demonstrated that sestonic bacterial growth was potentially limited by P. Experiments were done by adding N, P, or organic carbon to 2 l microcosms of river water. The addition of P (singly, and in combination with N and C) increased bacterial production (rate of 3 H-thymidine incorporation) and activity ( 14 C-glucose uptake), while the addition of N or organic carbon did not. The inflow of PME into the Fraser River increased bacterial abundance, activity, and production in 2 ways. First, P in the PME increased native bacterial abundance and processes, and second, PME provided a source of active bacteria to the river.

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Microbial nutrient limitation in prairie saline lakes with high sulfate concentration

Cited by 37 publications

References 35 publications

Experimental study of microbial P limitation in the eastern Mediterranean

Experimental study of microbial P limitation in the eastern Mediterranean

Phytoplankton productivity across prairie saline lakes of the Great Plains (USA): a step toward deciphering patterns through lake classification models

Sestonic bacterial nutrient limitation in a northern temperate river and the impact of pulp-mill effluents

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