Phytoplankton diversity in a tropical high mountain lake

Rivera-R., Carlos; Solano-M., Dora; Zapata, Angela María; Donato‐Rondón, Jhon Ch.

doi:10.1080/03680770.2005.11902046

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The lake is in a closed, sheltered watershed with no natural surface tributaries, it holds an approximate volume of 1 450 510 m 3 , and has a surface area or water mirror of 11.4 ha. Its mean depth is 12.7 m, its maximum depth is 30 m and its relative depth is 7.9% (Rivera et al . 2005).…”

Section: Study Area and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of photosynthetic pigments in an Andean lake in Colombia

2006

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Guatavita Lake is a small, sheltered tropical high mountain lake located in the Colombian Andes, with a closed watershed and a maximum depth of 25 m. It is the freshwater source for human consumption in nearby small towns, as well as being a site of cultural value for the country, as it was a sacred place to indigenous peoples until about five centuries ago. As the structure and function of this aquatic ecosystem is poorly understood, this study provides initial knowledge on its phytoplankton biomass dynamics, which should be useful in designing efficient management plans with environmental baseline information for similar lakes elsewhere. Physical and chemical data, and photosynthetic pigment concentrations, were measured for the period November 1999-November 2000 at the central vertical axis of Guatavita Lake. The vertical profile of the chlorophyll-a concentration was closely related to the dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations and the thermal stratification characteristics. The maximum chlorophyll-a concentration in the metalimnion was recorded for the thermal stratification period (November 1999-June 2000. Deepening of the maximum chlorophyll-a concentration began in February, continuing to June, when it reached its lowest value at the 15 m depth. The phytoplankton biomass values showed an increment within the entire water column at the beginning of the mixing period (July). The relation between the metalimnetic peak of chlorophyll-a and the dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentration suggests the growth of the phytoplankton community is limited mainly by the availability of nitrogen.

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Section: Study Area and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of photosynthetic pigments in an Andean lake in Colombia

2006

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“…Concerning phytoplankton, rich desmidiaceae assemblages is a feature of many high-mountain tropical lakes that is lacking in temperate ones (Banderas-Tarabay et al, 1991;Rivera et al, 2005). The reason may be multivariate.…”

Section: The Microscopic Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives for an integrated understanding of tropical and temperate high-mountain lakes

Catalan

Rondón

2016

J Limnol

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<p>High mountain lakes are extreme freshwater ecosystems and excellent sentinels of current global change. They are likely among the most comparable ecosystems across the world. The largest contrast occurs between lakes in temperate and tropical areas. The main difference arises from the seasonal patterns of heat exchange and the external loadings (carbon, phosphorus, metals). The consequence is a water column structure based on temperature, in temperate lakes, and oxygen, in tropical lakes. This essential difference implies that, in tropical lakes, one can expect a more sustained productivity throughout the year; a higher nutrient internal loading based on the mineralization of external organic matter; higher nitrification-denitrification potential related to the oxyclines; and a higher metal mobilization due to the permanently reduced bottom layer. Quantifying and linking these and other biogeochemical pathways to particular groups of organisms is in the current agenda of high-mountain limnology. The intrinsic difficulties of the taxonomic study of many of the organisms inhabiting these systems can be now overcome with the use of molecular techniques. These techniques will not only provide a much less ambiguous taxonomic knowledge of the microscopic world, but also will unveil new biogeochemical pathways that are difficult to measure chemically and will solve biogeographical puzzles of the distribution of some macroscopic organism, tracing the relationship with other areas. Daily variability and vertical gradients in the tropics are the main factors of phytoplankton species turnover in tropical lakes; whereas seasonality is the main driver in temperate communities. The study of phytoplankton in high-mountain lakes only makes sense in an integrated view of the microscopic ecosystem. A large part of the plankton biomass is in heterotrophic, and mixotrophic organisms and prokaryotes compete for dissolved resources with eukaryotic autotrophs. In fact, high-mountain lake systems are excellent model ecosystems for applying an investigation linking airshed to sediments functional views. Additionally, the study of the mountain lakes districts as functional metacommunity units may reveal key differences in the distribution of organisms of limited (slow) dispersal. We propose that limnological studies at tropical and temperate high mountain lakes should adhere to a common general paradigm. In which biogeochemical processes are framed by the airshed-to-sediment continuum concept and the biogeographical processes in the functional lake district concept. The solid understanding of the fundamental limnological processes will facilitate stronger contributions to the assessment of the impacts of the on-going global change in remote areas.</p>

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“…It has a small, wooded topographic catchment (area: 0.67km 2 ). Rivera et al (2005) also revealed the presence of a steep chemical gradient in the lake, separating the upper and lower water masses and confining photosynthetic production to the insolated part of the water column (Zapata 2001); carbon fixation rates in the order 24-165mgC/m 2 .d were consistent with those said to typify oligoproductive lakes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Even in this particular region, there are inevitable logistic difficulties in organizing and sustaining relevant systematic field studies. In the end, the results of an earlier survey of one of these lakes (Zapata 2001, Rivera et al 2005, Donato 2010) were decisive in selecting Laguna Guatavita as the site for the present study.…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The lakes vary in their morphometry, hydrology, chemical composition and stratification, as well as the nature and abundance of the phytoplankton they support (Donato 2010). Laguna de Guatavita (4°58'50" N -73°46'43" W) is a small, roughly elliptical (437×325m) lake, believed to be a karstic collapse crater (Rivera et al 2005). Its area (0.114km 2 ) and current altitude of its surface (2 935m.a.s.l) are regulated by an artificial channel, which was cut in the year 1 580 as part of an attempt (largely successful) to recover Muiscan treasures from the lake and which dropped the water level by about 20m.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Limnology in El Dorado: some surprising aspects of the regulation of phytoplankton productive capacity in a high-altitude Andean lake (Laguna de Guatavita, Colombia)

Donato

Jiménez²,

Reynolds³

2012

RBT

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High-altitude mountain lakes remain understudied, mostly because of their relative inaccessibility. Laguna de Guatavita, a small, equatorial, high-altitude crater lake in the Eastern Range of the Colombian Andes, was once of high cultural importance to pre-Columban inhabitants, the original location of the legendary El Dorado. We investigated the factors regulating the primary production in Laguna de Guatavita (4°58'50" N -73°46'43" W, alt. 2 935m.a.s.l., area: 0.11km 2 , maximum depth: 30m), during a series of three intensive field campaigns, which were conducted over a year-long period in [2003][2004]. In each, standard profiles of temperature, oxygen concentration and light intensity were determined on each of 16-18 consecutive days. Samples were collected and analysed for chlorophyll and for biologically-significant solutes in GF/F-filtered water (NH 4 + , NO 3 -, NO 2 -; soluble reactive phosphorus). Primary production was also determined, by oxygen generation, on each day of the campaign. Our results showed that the productive potential of the lake was typically modest (campaign averages of 45-90mg C/m 2 .h) but that many of the regulating factors were not those anticipated intuitively. The lake is demonstrably meromictic, reminiscent of karstic dolines in higher latitudes, its stratification being maintained by solute-concentration gradients. Light penetration is poor, attributable to the turbidity owing to fine calcite and other particulates in suspension. Net primary production in the mixolimnion of Laguna de Guavita is sensitive to day-to-day variations in solar irradiance at the surface. However, deficiencies in nutrient availability, especially nitrogen, also constrain the capacity of the lake to support a phytoplankton. We deduced that Laguna de Guatavita is something of a limnological enigma, atypical of the common anticipation of a "mountain lake". While doubtlessly not unique, comparable descriptions of similar sites elsewhere are sufficiently rare to justify the presentation of the data from Laguna de Guatavita that our studies have revealed so far. Rev. Biol. Trop. 60 (3): 967-980. Epub 2012 September 01.

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Phytoplankton diversity in a tropical high mountain lake

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

Dynamics of photosynthetic pigments in an Andean lake in Colombia

Dynamics of photosynthetic pigments in an Andean lake in Colombia

Perspectives for an integrated understanding of tropical and temperate high-mountain lakes

Limnology in El Dorado: some surprising aspects of the regulation of phytoplankton productive capacity in a high-altitude Andean lake (Laguna de Guatavita, Colombia)

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