Phytoplankton of rhithral rivers: Its origin, diversity and possible use for quality-assessment

Bolgovics, Ágnes; Várbíró, Gábor; Ács, Éva; Trábert, Zsuzsa; Kiss, Keve Tihamér; Pozderka, Virág; Görgényi, Judit; Lukács, Balázs András; Nagy-László, Zsolt; Abonyi, András; Borics, Gábor

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.04.052

Cited by 26 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Droughts are complex phenomena, which are generally considered to be disturbances with strong negative influence on ecosystem function (Rosett et al, 2017). However, the impact of a disturbance is system dependent (Borics et al, 2013), and usually only extreme drought events have a strong impact on the composition of ecological communities (Acuna et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autumn drought drives functional diversity of benthic diatom assemblages of continental intermittent streams

B‐Béres

Tóthmérész

Bácsi

et al. 2019

Advances in Water Resources

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Climate change is predicted to increase drought occurrence and severity in small continental watercourses. Here, we studied the structure and the functional diversity of benthic diatom assemblages in lowland intermittent and permanent watercourses of the Carpathian Basin. We assumed that the community structure of intermittent and permanent watercourses would be markedly diff erent, and the functional diversity in both would be strongly influenced by autumn drought. We found that intermittent streams were primarily characterized by small-sized generalists and aerophilic taxa, while permanent watercourses were inhabited by large-sized planktic or fast moving groups. The functional richness was significantly lower in intermittent than in permanent streams. This decrease in the functional richness of benthic algal communities may negatively aff ect the functioning of lotic algal communities. We conclude that diatom assemblages in lowland intermittent watercourses are sensitive indicators of changes in ecosystem properties, and should be considered in appropriate evaluation and management of extreme climatic events on aquatic ecosystems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autumn drought drives functional diversity of benthic diatom assemblages of continental intermittent streams

B‐Béres

Tóthmérész

Bácsi

et al. 2019

Advances in Water Resources

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“…In general, the main factor most probably causing the change in diatom presence is sedimentation, but due to the relatively short residence time upstream, this does not happen either. Downstream, however, the impact of the changes in physical environment becomes more dominant (Bolgovics et al, 2017;Abonyi, 2012). The positive loading of chloride in the first PCs (loading=0.7; Table 5a) indicate that one of the most dominant diatom species is a halophilic centric diatom (codon C), but this characteristic is also true of other planktic diatoms in the River Tisza and other watercourses as well (B-Béres et al, 2017;Table 2.).…”

Section: Ecological Covariances Taking Seasonality Into Accountmentioning

confidence: 95%

Distribution of niche spaces over different homogeneous river sections at seasonal resolution

Hatvani

Tanos

Várbíró

et al. 2019

Ecological Indicators

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Planktic algae have an essential role in the food web as primary producers; the determination of the ecological niche space occupied by them is thus essential in strategies aimed at sustaining the biodiversity of surface waters. In the present study, principal component analysis combined with the outlying mean index was applied to 14 water quality time series (1993-2005) derived from three previously determined homogeneous sections of the Hungarian part of the River Tisza. As a result, the seasonal distribution of the ecological n-dimensional hypervolumes was determined for the different river sections. In the first upper section, the seasonal niches overlay each other, and no clear separation could be detected. In the middle-and lower reaches, however, a clear separation between the seasons was observed. The identification of these separate niches of the various seasons as the main indicators/drivers of certain ecological communities (e.g. phytoplankton) proved possible.

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“…benthic taxa that entrained to the plankton after detached from the substrates (Bolgovics et al, 2015(Bolgovics et al, , 2017. Thus, phytoplankton of rhithral rivers strongly depends on the composition and biomass of the benthic algae living in the various habitats of the river bed and the current velocity has to be sufficient to keep benthic organisms in suspension.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In upper river segments, where WRT is not sufficient for the development of phytoplankton (Lucas et al, 2009), planktic assemblages consist primarily of suspended benthic elements (mostly pennate diatoms) entrained from various surfaces of the river-bed (Abonyi et al, 2012;Bolgovics et al, 2015Bolgovics et al, , 2017Várbíró et. al., 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How length of light exposure shapes the development of riverine algal biomass in temperate rivers?

et al. 2017

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The impact of cumulative daily solar radiation (CDSR) on the biomass of river phytoplankton (Chl-a) in the growing season was studied using a large dataset of rivers in the Carpathian Basin. The amount of solar radiation was cumulated over the range of 1-60 days. The CDSRChl-a relationship could be described by linear regression and appeared to be significant for almost all watercourses with the exception of rivers with short water residence time. To determine the most relevant time period of CDRS impacting phytoplankton biomass, the slopes of regressions were plotted against the accumulating number of days of light exposure (1-60). Two characteristic shapes were obtained: unimodal for rivers with hard substrate and steady increase for lowland rivers with fine substrate. In both cases, there is an increasing tendency in the slope values with water residence time (WRT). It was demonstrated that CDSR has a pronounced impact on river phytoplankton biomass even in cases when WRT was shorter than the cumulated solar radiation period. These results indicate that development of phytoplankton within the river channel is a complex process in which meroplankton dynamics may have significant impacts. Our results have two implications: First, CDSR cannot be neglected in predictive modelling of riverine phytoplankton biomass. Second, climate models forecast increased drought with subsequently increased CDSR in several regions globally, which may trigger a rise in phytoplankton biomass in light-limited rivers with high nutrient concentrations.

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Phytoplankton of rhithral rivers: Its origin, diversity and possible use for quality-assessment

Cited by 26 publications

References 56 publications

Autumn drought drives functional diversity of benthic diatom assemblages of continental intermittent streams

Autumn drought drives functional diversity of benthic diatom assemblages of continental intermittent streams

Distribution of niche spaces over different homogeneous river sections at seasonal resolution

How length of light exposure shapes the development of riverine algal biomass in temperate rivers?

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