The effects of Bythotrephes longimanus and calcium decline on crustacean zooplankton communities in Canadian Shield lakes

Azan, Shakira; Arnott, Shelley E.

doi:10.1007/s10750-016-2934-0

Cited by 3 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…In the coming years, 37% of lakes in south-central Ontario (Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin) are expected to experience calcium declines below the threshold of 1.5 mg Ca L À1 at which growth and reproduction of Daphnia is reduced (Reid and Watmough 2016). The negative effects of declining calcium concentrations observed previously on crustacean zooplankton (including increased mortality combined with reduced growth and reproductive rates; Azan et al 2015;Azan and Arnott 2016) were not detectable at the pan-Canadian scale, where many factors interact to affect diversity. However, we did find evidence of a significant association between zooplankton FRic and calcium in certain regions (Great Lakes-St. Lawrence and Atlantic Ocean basin, 314 lakes subset).…”

Section: Zooplankton Response To Water Quality Metricsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Environmental drivers of taxonomic and functional variation in zooplankton diversity and composition in freshwater lakes across Canadian continental watersheds

Paquette

Gregory‐Eaves

Beisner

2022

Limnology & Oceanography

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Canada is home to more lakes than any other nation, but there is a fragmented and limited understanding of the ecological status of these water bodies. Zooplankton are excellent bioindicators of lake health, given their central food web position. To date, many studies have investigated the effect of individual stressors on zooplankton communities, mediated through changes in water quality (e.g., macronutrients, temperature, or chemicals). Increasingly, stressors act simultaneously in lakes, often over extended periods of time. As part of the NSERC Canadian Lake Pulse Network project, pelagic zooplankton were sampled in 624 lakes across Canada, spanning six continental drainage basins. We evaluated the effect of 40+ environmental variables on zooplankton diversity and community composition, considering both taxonomic and functional approaches. We also tested specific hypotheses on the relationships between zooplankton communities and environmental conditions, including eutrophication, calcium, chloride, and fish predation. We found that lake morphometry variables were among the most important predictors of zooplankton diversity, while water quality metrics were more critical in explaining variation in community composition. Our results also reveal significant heterogeneity across Canada, with contrasting effects of environmental drivers among continental watersheds, highlighting that response models cannot be assumed to apply universally.

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Section: Zooplankton Response To Water Quality Metricsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Environmental drivers of taxonomic and functional variation in zooplankton diversity and composition in freshwater lakes across Canadian continental watersheds

Paquette

Gregory‐Eaves

Beisner

2022

Limnology & Oceanography

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“…For the Dorset experiment we established two gradients; aqueous [Ca] ranged from 0.5 to 2.5 mg Ca/L and was crossed with 8 zooplankton source lakes that ranged from 1.8 to 24.8 mg Ca/L. Each treatment combination was replicated 2 times for a total of 64 mesocosms (Azan 2016). The Lumsden experiment had two Ca treatments; 0.9 and 2.3 mg Ca/L, each replicated 5 times (Ross 2015).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the Havelock and Lumsden experiments, zooplankton from all source lakes were pooled and aliquots were evenly distributed among enclosures resulting in a final density that approximated the mean ambient density of all colonist source lakes, based on volume of water filtered through nets during collection. We stocked mesocosms for the Dorset experiment with zooplankton at ambient density from 8 lakes so we could assess how zooplankton population growth rate varied a long a gradient of source lake [Ca] (Azan 2016).…”

Section: R a F Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To control for some of the inherent problems in regional surveys (discussed above) and to account for the natural ecological complexity not captured in laboratory studies, we assessed the influence of declining Ca on zooplankton population growth rates of crustacean zooplankton using three independent, manipulative field experiments (Azan and Arnott 2016;Azan 2016;Ross 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here we summarize the effect of Ca on population growth rates for crustacean zooplankton communities, comparing responses among the three independent mesocosm studies. Detailed assessment of individual species and functional group responses for each experiment can be found in Azan and Arnott (2016), Azan (2016), and Ross (2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Calcium decline reduces population growth rates of zooplankton in field mesocosms

2017

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Regional calcium (Ca) decline, a legacy of acid deposition and logging, is a potential threat to aquatic organisms. Lake surveys and laboratory studies indicate that Ca-rich daphniids are likely most susceptible, allowing for competitive release of other taxa with low Ca demand. Indeed, dramatic shifts in zooplankton community structure have been documented in lakes where Ca has declined, amid multiple other stressors. Given the perceived threat of this large-scale stressor, manipulative studies are needed to evaluate causal relationships between Ca decline and zooplankton community structure. We analysed per capita growth rates of zooplankton from three independent mesocosm experiments where we manipulated aqueous Ca concentrations to reflect current and future Ca concentrations. In two experiments where Ca concentration was reduced to 0.6 or 0.9 mg/L, we observed reduced growth rates for several taxa, including daphniids, bosminids, and copepods. No effect of Ca was detected in the experiment where Ca concentrations ranged from 1.2 to 2.5 mg/L, a gradient representing 68% of lakes in south-central Ontario. These results suggest that future Ca decline in soft-water Canadian Shield lakes may be accompanied by shifts in community structure and overall declines in zooplankton production.

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Variation in behaviour of native prey mediates the impact of an invasive species on plankton communities

Hasnain

Arnott

2022

Preprint

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Predation plays an important role in structuring and maintaining ecological communities. Population level differences in predator trait expression have been shown to influence predator impacts on prey species, altering ecological interactions and trophic dynamics. However, the effect of inter-population differences in prey traits on the impacts of predation on ecological communities remains poorly understood, especially for introduced predators where differences in prey traits could influence the outcome of biological invasions. We examined if population level differences in Daphnia vertical position influenced the impacts of the invasive predator Bythotrephes cederstromii on major zooplankton and algal groups. Our results show that differences in Daphnia vertical position resulted in differences in Bythotrephes impacts on small cladocerans, with a larger reduction in small cladoceran density in Bythotrephes invaded mesocosms where Daphnia adopted a deeper vertical position. Furthermore, we observed a greater increase in algal biomass in invaded mesocosms with a greater proportion of hypolimnetic Daphnia. Taken together, these results suggest that population level differences in Daphnia vertical position influence the magnitude and type of Bythotrephes impacts on zooplankton communities.

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The effects of Bythotrephes longimanus and calcium decline on crustacean zooplankton communities in Canadian Shield lakes

Cited by 3 publications

References 68 publications

Environmental drivers of taxonomic and functional variation in zooplankton diversity and composition in freshwater lakes across Canadian continental watersheds

Environmental drivers of taxonomic and functional variation in zooplankton diversity and composition in freshwater lakes across Canadian continental watersheds

Calcium decline reduces population growth rates of zooplankton in field mesocosms

Variation in behaviour of native prey mediates the impact of an invasive species on plankton communities

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