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Functional and taxonomic biogeography of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities in relation to environmental variation across the contiguous USA.

ABSTRACT: For biomonitoring of aquatic ecosystems, the use of coarse group classifications, either taxonomic or functional, has been proposed as an alternative to more highly resolved taxonomic identification. We tested this proposition for phytoplankton and zooplankton using a pan-United States dataset, which also allows us to investigate biogeographic relationships between plankton groups and environmental variables. We used data from 1010 lakes composing the 2012 US National Lakes Assessment and compared relationships derived using genus-level, more aggregated taxonomic resolution and functional types. We examined responses nationally and by ecoregion. Differences in plankton assemblages among ecoregions were detected, especially at genus-level classification. Our analyses show a gradient of altitude and temperature influencing both phytoplankton and zooplankton, and another gradient of nutrients and anthropogenic activity influencing mostly phytoplankton. The overall variation in the planktonic communities explained by environmental variables ranged from 4 to 22%, but together indicated that aggregated taxonomic classification performed better for phytoplankton; for zooplankton, the performance of different classification types depended on the ecoregion. Our analyses also revealed linkages between particular phytoplankton and zooplankton groups, mainly attributable to similar environmental responses and trophic interactions. Overall, the results support the applicability of coarse classifications to infer general responses of plankton communities to environmental drivers.

SUBMITTER: DE Oliveira Sodre E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8340606 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Planktivorous fish predation directly affects zooplankton biomass, community and size structure, and may indirectly induce a trophic cascade to phytoplankton. However, it is not clear how quickly the zooplankton community structure and the cascading effects on phytoplankton recover to the unaffected state (i.e. resilience) once short-term predation by fish stops. The resilience has implications for the ecological quality and restoration measures in aquatic ecosystems. To assess the short-term zooplankton resilience against fish predation, we conducted a mesocosm experiment consisting of 10 enclosures, 6 with fish and 4 without fish. Plankton communities from a natural lake were used to establish phytoplankton and zooplankton in the mesocosms. High biomasses (about 20 g wet mass m-3) of juvenile planktivorous fish (perch, Perca fluviatilis) were allowed to feed on zooplankton in fish enclosures for four days. Thereafter, we removed fish and observed the recovery of the zooplankton community and its cascading effect on trophic interactions in comparison with no fish enclosures for four weeks. Short-term fish predation impaired resilience in zooplankton community by modifying community composition, as large zooplankton, such as calanoids, decreased just after fish predation and did not re-appear afterwards, whereas small cladocerans and rotifers proliferated. Total zooplankton biomass increased quickly within two weeks after fish removal, and at the end even exceeded the biomass measured before fish addition. Despite high biomass, the dominance of small zooplankton released phytoplankton from grazer control in fish enclosures. Accordingly, the zooplankton community did not recover from the effect of fish predation, indicating low short-term resilience. In contrast, in no fish enclosures without predation disturbance, a high zooplankton:phytoplankton biomass ratio accompanied by low phytoplankton yield (Chlorophyll-a:Total phosphorus ratio) reflected phytoplankton control by zooplankton over the experimental period. Comprehensive views on short and long-term resilience of zooplankton communities are essential for restoration and management strategies of aquatic ecosystems to better predict responses to global warming, such as higher densities of planktivorous fish.

Dataset Information

Functional and taxonomic biogeography of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities in relation to environmental variation across the contiguous USA.

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