Morfología funcional del fitoplancton en un lago de alta montaña tropical: Lago de Tota (Boyacá-Colombia)

Abstract

Functional morphology of phytoplankton in a tropical high mountain lake: Tota Lake (Boyacá-Colombia). Functional morphology corresponds to adaptive responses to changes in the environment. In phytoplankton, traits such as the development of mucilage, oil vesicles, filaments and variation in the surface/volume ratio, allow algae to deal with sedimentation, optimizing light and nutrient uptake. The aim of this research was to evaluate the relationship between traits and variation in physical and chemical conditions in Tota Lake (Boyacá, Colombia). For this, ten samplings were undertaken in a monthly basis between October 2013 and July 2014. We measured water pH, conductivity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, oxygen saturation, alkalinity and total hardness; we also quantified Total Kjeldahl nitrogen and Total phosphorus. Algae were collected at different depths according to Secchi transparency. Taxonomic composition and abundance were estimated by the chamber sedimentation method. Morphological traits were measured for each taxa according to geometric models, allowing traits classification into morphologically based functional groups (MBFG) and having algae biomass expressed as biovolume. The variables were evaluated through Principal Components Analysis, which included time-space effect and it was interpreted according to variation in water level. Through Canonical Correspondence Analysis we established the relationship between phytoplankton biovolume accumulated in form categories and environmental variables. The ordination showed that limnological conditions are influenced by seasonal changes, which are mainly represented by oxygen saturation percentage, Secchi transparency, TKN, hardness and alkalinity. Four MBFG were found: IV, V, VI and VII, being MBFG IV and VII the most representatives. ACC was significant (Monte-Carlo Test, p<0.05). In conclusion, the morphological and functional response of phytoplankton in Tota Lake is driven by short-term variability in transparency, phosphorus, nitrogen, hardness, and electrical conductivity, which are all affected by seasonal changes in the lake level. Rev. Biol. Trop. 65 (2): 669-683. Epub 2017 June 01.

Expanding the knowledge of plankton diversity of tropical lakes from the Northeast Colombian Andes

“…The planktonic organisms identified in this study coincide with information recorded for other tropical mountain (Gaviria, 1989;Donato, 1991;Gaviria, 1993;Donato et al, 1996;Donato, 2010;Aranguren-Riaño et al, 2011;Muñoz-López et al, 2017) and lowland lakes (Duque & Núñez-Avellaneda, 2000;Pinilla, 2005;Barón-Rodríguez et al, 2006;Sala et al, 2008;Álvarez, 2010;Jaramillo-Londoño & Pinto-Coelho, 2010;Rivera et al, 2010;Andrade-Sossa et al, 2011;Jaramillo-Londoño & Aguirre-Ramírez, 2012;Aguirre-Ramírez, 2014;Sala et al, 2015) of Colombia. The greatest phytoplankton richness was found for the phyla Charophyta, Bacillariophyta, and Chlorophyta; this was possibly due to these species constituting the greatest percentage of species in lentic systems, despite differences in the environmental characteristics of mountain and lowland lakes (Donato et al, 1996;Canosa y Pinilla, 2007;Donato, 2010;Alba-M et al, 2011;Osorio-Ávila & Manjarres-García, 2015).…”

“…The species richness of phytoplankton in this work is high as compared with the results of other studies in tropical lakes. For example, Castaño et al, (2010) observed 25 phytoplankton species in Laguna Negra, Muñoz-López et al, (2017) reported 49 phytoplankton taxa in Lago de Tota, Jaramillo-Londoño & Aguirre-Ramirez (2012) recorded 74 phytoplankton species in the Ciénaga de Ayapel, Pava et al, (2006) reported 58 in the Ciénaga de San Silvestre. However, Donato et al, (2010) found a higher species richness than our studie, they identified 142 phytoplankton species in 20 tropical mountain lakes distributed along the three Andean Cordilleras.…”

“…However, the plankton community responds more quickly than others to these changes and has a direct effect on the productivity of lentic environments because it supports to a large extent the trophic web, affecting the ecosystem structure and functioning (Anderson et al, 2002;Woodward et al, 2010). Phytoplankton is the main energy receptor in aquatic ecosystems; its composition and dynamics in the water column are regulated mainly by the incidence of light, temperature, nutrient availability, competition, hydraulic dynamics, and pression from herbivory (Reynolds, 1984(Reynolds, , 2008Kruk et al, 2011;Esteves & Suzuki, 2011;Muñoz-López et al, 2017). Zooplankton not only regulates primary productivity, can also indicate the environmental state of aquatic systems over a given time period, due to the changes in the community in terms of diversity and abundance (Phan et al, 2015).…”

Variación temporal de la morfología funcional del fitoplancton en una planicie inundable del Caribe Colombiano

“…Según Mihaljević et al (2015) las condiciones bióticas y abióticas de las planicies de inundación están estrechamente ligadas a los períodos hidroclimáticos. En el presente estudio, la variación de las condiciones físicas y químicas durante el período comprendido resultó en cambios en la distribución temporal de los organismos y biovolumen representado en los diferentes GFBM, lo cual vislumbra cambios importantes en el sistema y en la respuesta de la comunidad del fitoplancton (Muñoz-López et al, 2017).…”

“…Diversos autores han concluido que el empleo de la morfología funcional permite revelar cambios asociados a la ecología del fitoplancton en ecosistemas acuáticos con diferentes tensores y características ambientales (Lins et al, 2017;Segura et al, 2018;Amorim et al, 2019;Kruk et al, 2017;Muñoz-López et al, 2017). Algunos estudios realizados en sistemas inundables han sido desarrollados en el lago de inundación brasilero `Batata´ y en la planicie de inundación del rio Danubio, los cuales han concluido que las propiedades físicas del medio, así como su dinámica pulsátil son altamente determinantes sobre las estrategias o asociaciones de los grupos funcionales encontrados (Mihaljević et al, 2015;Muñoz-López et al, 2017). En lagos de inundación con una columna de agua mezclada, somera y turbia, como la Ciénaga de Ayapel, predominan organismos de mayor tamaño, altos volumen y razón S/V, adaptados a muchas perturbaciones físicas y tolerantes a poca luz (Hernández-Atilano et al, 2012).…”