Published January 1, 2015
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Effects of water temperature on summer periphyton biomass in shallow lakes: a pan-European mesocosm experiment
Creators
- 1. IGB, Leibniz Inst Freshwater Ecol & Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
- 2. Middle E Tech Univ, Dept Biol Sci, Limnol Lab, TR-06531 Ankara, Turkey
- 3. Acad Sci Czech Republ, Inst Hydrobiol, Ctr Biol, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- 4. Univ Patras, Dept Biol, Patras, Greece
- 5. Estonian Univ Life Sci, Ctr Limnol, EE-61117 Rannu, Tartu County, Estonia
- 6. Aarhus Univ, Dept Biosci, DK-8600 Silkeborg, Denmark
Description
Periphyton communities play an important role in shallow lakes and are controlled by direct forces such as temperature, light, nutrients, and invertebrate grazing, but also indirectly by planktivorous fish predation. We performed a pan-European lake mesocosm experiment on periphyton colonization covering five countries along a north/south geographical/temperature gradient (Estonia, Germany, Czech Republic, Turkey, and Greece). Periphyton biomass on artificial polypropylene strips exposed at 50 cm water depth at low and high nutrient regimes (with mean total phosphorus concentration of 20 and 65 mu g L-1, respectively) was compared during mid-summer. No significant effect of nutrient loading on periphyton biomass was observed as nutrient concentrations in the mesocosms were generally above limiting values. Water temperature significantly enhanced summer periphyton biomass development. Additionally, direct and indirect top-down control of snails and fish emerged as a significant factor in periphyton biomass control.
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