Periphyton dry mass, ash content, and chlorophyll content on natural substrata in three water bodies of different trophy

Abstract

Periphyton communities were studied on several dominating macrophytes, Phragmites australis, Potamogeton lucens, and Nuphar lutea, in three different types of lakes. In soft-water mesotrophic Lake Mały Borek and in shallow, eutrophic Lake Gardno samples were collected about once every two months from April to November 2009. In eutrophic Szczecin Lagoon (the estuary of the Oder River), samples were only collected once in July. The aim of this paper was to determine the dry mass, the ash content, and the chlorophyll-a content of periphyton on a natural substratum, in order to determine the mass, the inorganicorganic status of periphyton, and the auto-heterotrophic character of this complex. The analyzed periphytic communities exhibited low dry mass at the beginning of the growth season, which increased with colonization period on the aquatic vegetation. The highest (but still low) values were achieved in autumn, which persisted, with small loss, until spring of the subsequent year. The differences in dry mass between each type of lake were small, but in the strongly eutrophic Szczecin Lagoon this index was slightly higher than in the other two water bodies. The highest dry mass was noted for periphyton dominated by

O2, pH, and Redox Potential Microprofiles around Potamogeton malaianus Measured Using Microsensors

“…Subsequently, the distilled water containing the scraping and that in which the corresponding subsample was transported were pooled and diluted to 500 mL. The resulting suspension was divided into four equal parts, and two subsamples were vacuum filtered through precombusted and pre-weighed Whatman GF/C filters (for dry mass analysis) and two others through cellulose acetate membrane filters (for chlorophyll a analysis) [9] , [12] . Periphyton was collected on precombusted and preweighed Whatman GF/C filters.…”

“…Ash mass was determined after the filters with periphyton were combusted at 550°C (4 h) in a muffle furnace. The ash-free dry weight (AFDW) was calculated as the difference between dry weight (DW) and ash weight (AW) [9] , [12] . The chlorophyll a content was determined using a standard method with acetone as a solvent, according to [40] .…”

“…The submerged macrophyte-water boundary layer occupying the key interface of lake ecosystems remarkably influences the productivity and biogeochemical cycles in shallow lake ecosystems [5] , [6] . The periphyton biomass, composition, and structure in the boundary layer are known to be affected mainly by factors such as plant species [7] , [8] , growing stages [9] , [10] , nutrient load [9] , [11] , [12] , and hydrodynamics [13] . The special boundary layer with a dense periphyton was found to hinder the long-term growth of submerged macrophytes [1] , [14] , [15] , leading to the degradation and even disappearance of submerged macrophytes [16] , [17] .…”