@phdthesis{Heim2005, author = {Heim, Birgit}, title = {Qualitative and quantitative analyses of Lake Baikal's surface-waters using ocean colour satellite data (SeaWiFS)}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7182}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2005}, abstract = {One of the most difficult issues when dealing with optical water remote-sensing is its acceptance as a useful application for environmental research. This problem is, on the one hand, concerned with the optical complexity and variability of the investigated natural media, and therefore the question arises as to the plausibility of the parameters derived from remote-sensing techniques. Detailed knowledge about the regional bio- and chemico-optical properties is required for such studies, however such information is seldom available for the sites of interest. On the other hand, the primary advantage of remote-sensing information, which is the provision of a spatial overview, may not be exploited fully by the disciplines that would benefit most from such information. It is often seen in a variety of disciplines that scientists have been primarily trained to look at discrete data sets, and therefore have no experience of incorporating information dealing with spatial heterogeneity. In this thesis, the opportunity was made available to assess the potential of Ocean Colour data to provide spatial and seasonal information about the surface waters of Lake Baikal (Siberia). While discrete limnological field data is available, the spatial extension of Lake Baikal is enormous (ca. 600 km), while the field data are limited to selected sites and expedition time windows. Therefore, this remote-sensing investigation aimed to support a multi-disciplinary limnological investigation within the framework of the paleoclimate EU-project 'High Resolution CONTINENTal Paleoclimate Record in Lake Baikal, Siberia (CONTINENT)' using spatial and seasonal information from the SeaWiFS satellite (NASA). From this, the SeaWiFS study evolved to become the first efficient bio-optical satellite study of Lake Baikal. During the course of three years, field work including spectral field measurements and water sampling, was carried out at Lake Baikal in Southern Siberia, and at the Mecklenburg and Brandenburg lake districts in Germany. The first step in processing the SeaWiFS satellite data involved adapting the SeaDAS (NASA) atmospheric-correction processing to match as close as possible the specific conditions of Lake Baikal. Next, various Chl-a algorithms were tested on the atmospherically-corrected optimized SeaWiFS data set (years 2001 to 2002), comparing the CONTINENT pigment ground-truth data with the Chl-a concentrations derived from the satellite data. This showed the high performance of the global Chl-a products OC2 and OC4 for the oligotrophic, transparent waters (bio-optical Case 1) of Lake Baikal. However, considerable Chl-a overestimation prevailed in bio-optical Case 2 areas for the case of discharge events. High-organic terrigenous input into Lake Baikal could be traced and information extracted using the SeaWiFS spectral data. Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) was quantified by the regression of the SeaDAS attenuation coefficient as the optical parameter with SPM field data. Finally, the Chl-a and terrigenous input maps derived from the remote sensing data were used to assist with analyzing the relationships between the various discrete data obtained during the CONTINENT field work. Hence, plausible spatial and seasonal information describing autochthonous and allochthonous material in Lake Baikal could be provided by satellite data.Lake Baikal, with its bio-optical complexity and its different areas of Case 1 and Case 2 waters, is a very interesting case study for Ocean Colour analyses. Proposals for future Ocean Colour studies of Lake Baikal are discussed, including which bio-optical parameters for analytical models still need to be clarified by field investigations.}, subject = {Baikalsee}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Huber2010, author = {Huber, Veronika Emilie Charlotte}, title = {Climate impact on phytoplankton blooms in shallow lakes}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42346}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Lake ecosystems across the globe have responded to climate warming of recent decades. However, correctly attributing observed changes to altered climatic conditions is complicated by multiple anthropogenic influences on lakes. This thesis contributes to a better understanding of climate impacts on freshwater phytoplankton, which forms the basis of the food chain and decisively influences water quality. The analyses were, for the most part, based on a long-term data set of physical, chemical and biological variables of a shallow, polymictic lake in north-eastern Germany (M{\"u}ggelsee), which was subject to a simultaneous change in climate and trophic state during the past three decades. Data analysis included constructing a dynamic simulation model, implementing a genetic algorithm to parameterize models, and applying statistical techniques of classification tree and time-series analysis. Model results indicated that climatic factors and trophic state interactively determine the timing of the phytoplankton spring bloom (phenology) in shallow lakes. Under equally mild spring conditions, the phytoplankton spring bloom collapsed earlier under high than under low nutrient availability, due to a switch from a bottom-up driven to a top-down driven collapse. A novel approach to model phenology proved useful to assess the timings of population peaks in an artificially forced zooplankton-phytoplankton system. Mimicking climate warming by lengthening the growing period advanced algal blooms and consequently also peaks in zooplankton abundance. Investigating the reasons for the contrasting development of cyanobacteria during two recent summer heat wave events revealed that anomalously hot weather did not always, as often hypothesized, promote cyanobacteria in the nutrient-rich lake studied. The seasonal timing and duration of heat waves determined whether critical thresholds of thermal stratification, decisive for cyanobacterial bloom formation, were crossed. In addition, the temporal patterns of heat wave events influenced the summer abundance of some zooplankton species, which as predators may serve as a buffer by suppressing phytoplankton bloom formation. This thesis adds to the growing body of evidence that lake ecosystems have strongly responded to climatic changes of recent decades. It reaches beyond many previous studies of climate impacts on lakes by focusing on underlying mechanisms and explicitly considering multiple environmental changes. Key findings show that climate impacts are more severe in nutrient-rich than in nutrient-poor lakes. Hence, to develop lake management plans for the future, limnologists need to seek a comprehensive, mechanistic understanding of overlapping effects of the multi-faceted human footprint on aquatic ecosystems.}, language = {en} } @article{SpijkermanWacker2011, author = {Spijkerman, Elly and Wacker, Alexander}, title = {Interactions between P-limitation and different C conditions on the fatty acid composition of an extremophile microalga}, series = {Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions}, volume = {15}, journal = {Extremophiles : life under extreme conditions}, number = {5}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Tokyo}, issn = {1431-0651}, doi = {10.1007/s00792-011-0390-3}, pages = {597 -- 609}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The extremophilic microalga Chlamydomonas acidophila inhabits very acidic waters (pH 2-3.5), where its growth is often limited by phosphorus (P) or colimited by P and inorganic carbon (CO(2)). Because this alga is a major food source for predators in acidic habitats, we studied its fatty acid content, which reflects their quality as food, grown under a combination of P-limited and different carbon conditions (either mixotrophically with light + glucose or at high or low CO(2), both without glucose). The fatty acid composition largely depended on the cellular P content: stringent P-limited cells had a higher total fatty acid concentration and had a lower percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids. An additional limitation for CO(2) inhibited this decrease, especially reflected in enhanced concentrations of 18:3(9,12,15) and 16:4(3,7,10,13), resulting in cells relatively rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids under colimiting growth conditions. The percentage of polyunsaturated to total fatty acid content was positively related with maximum photosynthesis under all conditions applied. The two factors, P and CO(2), thus interact in their effect on the fatty acid composition in C. acidophila, and colimited cells P-limited algae can be considered a superior food source for herbivores because of the high total fatty acid content and relative richness in polyunsaturated fatty acids.}, language = {en} } @article{CleggGaedkeBoehreretal.2012, author = {Clegg, Mark R. and Gaedke, Ursula and B{\"o}hrer, Bertram and Spijkerman, Elly}, title = {Complementary ecophysiological strategies combine to facilitate survival in the hostile conditions of a deep chlorophyll maximum}, series = {Oecologia}, volume = {169}, journal = {Oecologia}, number = {3}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0029-8549}, doi = {10.1007/s00442-011-2225-4}, pages = {609 -- 622}, year = {2012}, abstract = {In the deep, cooler layers of clear, nutrient-poor, stratified water bodies, phytoplankton often accumulate to form a thin band or "deep chlorophyll maximum" (DCM) of ecological importance. Under such conditions, these photosynthetic microorganisms may be close to their physiological compensation points and to the boundaries of their ecological tolerance. To grow and survive any resulting energy limitation, DCM species are thought to exhibit highly specialised or flexible acclimation strategies. In this study, we investigated several of the adaptable ecophysiological strategies potentially employed by one such species, Chlamydomonas acidophila: a motile, unicellular, phytoplanktonic flagellate that often dominates the DCM in stratified, acidic lakes. Physiological and behavioural responses were measured in laboratory experiments and were subsequently related to field observations. Results showed moderate light compensation points for photosynthesis and growth at 22A degrees C, relatively low maintenance costs, a behavioural preference for low to moderate light, and a decreased compensation point for photosynthesis at 8A degrees C. Even though this flagellated alga exhibited a physiologically mediated diel vertical migration in the field, migrating upwards slightly during the day, the ambient light reaching the DCM was below compensation points, and so calculations of daily net photosynthetic gain showed that survival by purely autotrophic means was not possible. Results suggested that strategies such as low-light acclimation, small-scale directed movements towards light, a capacity for mixotrophic growth, acclimation to low temperature, in situ exposure to low O-2, high CO2 and high P concentrations, and an avoidance of predation, could combine to help overcome this energetic dilemma and explain the occurrence of the DCM. Therefore, corroborating the deceptive ecophysiological complexity of this and similar organisms, only a suite of complementary strategies can facilitate the survival of C. acidophila in this DCM.}, language = {en} } @article{QuintanaArimBadosaetal.2015, author = {Quintana, Xavier D. and Arim, Matias and Badosa, Anna and Maria Blanco, Jose and Boix, Dani and Brucet, Sandra and Compte, Jordi and Egozcue, Juan J. and de Eyto, Elvira and Gaedke, Ursula and Gascon, Stephanie and Gil de Sola, Luis and Irvine, Kenneth and Jeppesen, Erik and Lauridsen, Torben L. and Lopez-Flores, Rocio and Mehner, Thomas and Romo, Susana and Sondergaard, Martin}, title = {Predation and competition effects on the size diversity of aquatic communities}, series = {Aquatic sciences : research across boundaries}, volume = {77}, journal = {Aquatic sciences : research across boundaries}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Basel}, issn = {1015-1621}, doi = {10.1007/s00027-014-0368-1}, pages = {45 -- 57}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Body size has been widely recognised as a key factor determining community structure in ecosystems. We analysed size diversity patterns of phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish assemblages in 13 data sets from freshwater and marine sites with the aim to assess whether there is a general trend in the effect of predation and resource competition on body size distribution across a wide range of aquatic ecosystems. We used size diversity as a measure of the shape of size distribution. Size diversity was computed based on the Shannon-Wiener diversity expression, adapted to a continuous variable, i.e. as body size. Our results show that greater predation pressure was associated with reduced size diversity of prey at all trophic levels. In contrast, competition effects depended on the trophic level considered. At upper trophic levels (zooplankton and fish), size distributions were more diverse when potential resource availability was low, suggesting that competitive interactions for resources promote diversification of aquatic communities by size. This pattern was not found for phytoplankton size distributions where size diversity mostly increased with low zooplankton grazing and increasing nutrient availability. Relationships we found were weak, indicating that predation and competition are not the only determinants of size distribution. Our results suggest that predation pressure leads to accumulation of organisms in the less predated sizes, while resource competition tends to favour a wider size distribution.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Lischke2015, author = {Lischke, Betty}, title = {Food web regulation under different forcing regimes in shallow lakes}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-89149}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {131}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The standing stock and production of organismal biomass depends strongly on the organisms' biotic environment, which arises from trophic and non-trophic interactions among them. The trophic interactions between the different groups of organisms form the food web of an ecosystem, with the autotrophic and bacterial production at the basis and potentially several levels of consumers on top of the producers. Feeding interactions can regulate communities either by severe grazing pressure or by shortage of resources or prey production, termed top-down and bottom-up control, respectively. The limitations of all communities conglomerate in the food web regulation, which is subject to abiotic and biotic forcing regimes arising from external and internal constraints. This dissertation presents the effects of alterations in two abiotic, external forcing regimes, terrestrial matter input and long-lasting low temperatures in winter. Diverse methodological approaches, a complex ecosystem model study and the analysis of two whole-lake measurements, were performed to investigate effects for the food web regulation and the resulting consequences at the species, community and ecosystem scale. Thus, all types of organisms, autotrophs and heterotrophs, at all trophic levels were investigated to gain a comprehensive overview of the effects of the two mentioned altered forcing regimes. In addition, an extensive evaluation of the trophic interactions and resulting carbon fluxes along the pelagic and benthic food web was performed to display the efficiencies of the trophic energy transfer within the food webs. All studies were conducted in shallow lakes, which is worldwide the most abundant type of lakes. The specific morphology of shallow lakes allows that the benthic production contributes substantially to the whole-lake production. Further, as shallow lakes are often small they are especially sensitive to both, changes in the input of terrestrial organic matter and the atmospheric temperature. Another characteristic of shallow lakes is their appearance in alternative stable states. They are either in a clear-water or turbid state, where macrophytes and phytoplankton dominate, respectively. Both states can stabilize themselves through various mechanisms. These two alternative states and stabilizing mechanisms are integrated in the complex ecosystem model PCLake, which was used to investigate the effects of the enhanced terrestrial particulate organic matter (t-POM) input to lakes. The food web regulation was altered by three distinct pathways: (1) Zoobenthos received more food, increased in biomass which favored benthivorous fish and those reduced the available light due to bioturbation. (2) Zooplankton substituted autochthonous organic matter in their diet by suspended t-POM, thus the autochthonous organic matter remaining in the water reduced its transparency. (3) T-POM suspended into the water and reduced directly the available light. As macrophytes are more light-sensitive than phytoplankton they suffered the most from the lower transparency. Consequently, the resilience of the clear-water state was reduced by enhanced t-POM inputs, which makes the turbid state more likely at a given nutrient concentration. In two subsequent winters long-lasting low temperatures and a concurrent long duration of ice coverage was observed which resulted in low overall adult fish biomasses in the two study lakes - Schulzensee and Gollinsee, characterized by having and not having submerged macrophytes, respectively. Before the partial winterkill of fish Schulzensee allowed for a higher proportion of piscivorous fish than Gollinsee. However, the partial winterkill of fish aligned both communities as piscivorous fish are more sensitive to low oxygen concentrations. Young of the year fish benefitted extremely from the absence of adult fish due to lower predation pressure. Therefore, they could exert a strong top-down control on crustaceans, which restructured the entire zooplankton community leading to low crustacean biomasses and a community composition characterized by copepodites and nauplii. As a result, ciliates were released from top-down control, increased to high biomasses compared to lakes of various trophic states and depths and dominated the zooplankton community. While being very abundant in the study lakes and having the highest weight specific grazing rates among the zooplankton, ciliates exerted potentially a strong top-down control on small phytoplankton and particle-attached bacteria. This resulted in a higher proportion of large phytoplankton compared to other lakes. Additionally, the phytoplankton community was evenly distributed presumably due to the numerous fast growing and highly specific ciliate grazers. Although, the pelagic food web was completely restructured after the subsequent partial winterkills of fish, both lakes were resistant to effects of this forcing regime at the ecosystem scale. The consistently high predation pressure on phytoplankton prevented that Schulzensee switched from the clear-water to the turbid state. Further mechanisms, which potentially stabilized the clear-water state, were allelopathic effects by macrophytes and nutrient limitation in summer. The pelagic autotrophic and bacterial production was an order of magnitude more efficient transferred to animal consumers than the respective benthic production, despite the alterations of the food web structure after the partial winterkill of fish. Thus, the compiled mass-balanced whole-lake food webs suggested that the benthic bacterial and autotrophic production, which exceeded those of the pelagic habitat, was not used by animal consumers. This holds even true if the food quality, additional consumers such as ciliates, benthic protozoa and meiobenthos, the pelagic-benthic link and the potential oxygen limitation of macrobenthos were considered. Therefore, low benthic efficiencies suggest that lakes are primarily pelagic systems at least at the animal consumer level. Overall, this dissertation gives insights into the regulation of organism groups in the pelagic and benthic habitat at each trophic level under two different forcing regimes and displays the efficiency of the carbon transfer in both habitats. The results underline that the alterations of external forcing regimes affect all hierarchical level including the ecosystem.}, language = {en} } @article{SpijkermanBehrendFachetal.2018, author = {Spijkerman, Elly and Behrend, Hella and Fach, Bettina and Gaedke, Ursula}, title = {Decreased phosphorus incorporation explains the negative effect of high iron concentrations in the green microalga Chlamydomonas acidophila}, series = {The science of the total environment : an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with man}, volume = {626}, journal = {The science of the total environment : an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with man}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0048-9697}, doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.188}, pages = {1342 -- 1349}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The green microalga Chlamydomonas acidophila is an important primary producer in very acidic lakes (pH 2.0-3.5), characterized by high concentrations of ferric iron (up to 1 g total Fe L-1) and low rates of primary production. It was previously suggested that these high iron concentrations result in high iron accumulation and inhibit photosynthesis in C. acidophila. To test this, the alga was grown in sterilized lake water and in medium with varying total iron concentrations under limiting and sufficient inorganic phosphorus (Pi) supply, because Pi is an important growth limiting nutrient in acidic waters. Photosynthesis and growth of C. acidophila as measured over 5 days were largely unaffected by high total iron concentrations and only decreased if free ionic Fe3+ concentrations exceeded 100 mg Fe3+ L-1. Although C. acidophila was relatively rich in iron (up to 5 mmol Fe: mol C), we found no evidence of iron toxicity. In contrast, a concentration of 260 mg total Fe L-1 (i.e. 15 mg free ionic Fe3+ L-1), which is common in many acidic lakes, reduced Pi-incorporation by 50\% and will result in Pi-limited photosynthesis. The resulting Pi-limitation present at high iron and Pi concentrations was illustrated by elevated maximum Pi-uptake rates. No direct toxic effects of high iron were found, but unfavourable chemical Pi-speciation reduced growth of the acidophile alga.}, language = {en} }