scholarly journals Thermal stratification and fish thermal preference explain vertical eDNA distributions in lakes

Author(s):  
Joanne E. Littlefair ◽  
Lee E. Hrenchuk ◽  
Paul J. Blanchfield ◽  
Michael D. Rennie ◽  
Melania E. Cristescu

AbstractSignificant advances have been made towards surveying animal and plant communities using DNA isolated from environmental samples. Despite rapid progress, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the “ecology” of environmental DNA (eDNA), particularly its temporal and spatial distribution and how this is shaped by abiotic and biotic processes. Here, we tested how seasonal variation in thermal stratification and animal habitat preferences influence the distribution of eDNA in lakes. We sampled eDNA depth profiles of five dimictic lakes during both summer stratification and autumn turnover, each containing warm- and cool-water fishes as well as the cold-water stenotherm, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Habitat use by lake trout was validated by acoustic telemetry and was significantly related to eDNA distribution during stratification. Fish eDNA became “stratified” into layers during summer months, reflecting lake stratification and the thermal niches of the species. During summer months, lake trout, which rarely ventured into shallow waters, could only be detected at the deepest layers of the lakes, whereas the eDNA of warm-water fishes was much more abundant above the thermocline. By contrast, during autumn lake turnover, the fish species assemblage as detected by eDNA was homogenous throughout the water column. These findings contribute to our overall understanding of the “ecology” of eDNA within lake ecosystems, illustrating how the strong interaction between seasonal thermal structure in lakes and thermal niches of species on very localised spatial scales influences our ability to detect species.

1997 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 1299-1305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert France

The purpose of the present study was to determine if riparian deforestation would expose lake surfaces to stronger winds and therefore bring about deepening of thermoclines and resulting habitat losses for cold stenotherms such as lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Removal of protective riparian trees through wind blowdown and two wildfires was found to triple the overwater windspeeds and produce thermocline deepening in two lakes at the Experimental Lakes Area. A survey of thermal stratification patterns in 63 northwestern Ontario lakes showed that lakes around which riparian trees had been removed a decade before through either clearcutting or by a wildfire were found to have thermocline depths over 2 m deeper per unit fetch length compared with lakes surrounded by mature forests. Riparian tree removal will therefore exacerbate hypolimnion habitat losses for cold stenotherms that have already been documented to be occurring as a result of lake acidification, eutrophication, and climate warming.


2012 ◽  
Vol 452-453 ◽  
pp. 1014-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gafsi Mostefa ◽  
Kettab Ahmed ◽  
Abdelkader Djehiche

Thermal stratification of lakes and reservoirs can result in substantial hypolimnetic oxygen depletion, which may have a negative impact on the cold-water fisheries, the drinking water treatment process, and water quality downstream of hydropower reservoirs. Several techniques of aeration are presented in this study, to describe their effectiveness in control of physical and chemical parameters, that compromising the balance ecological and the thermal stratification in water supplies. As a result, we demonstrate that the most efficient hypolimnetic aeration system is the bubble plume diffuser; although an accidental destratification may occur. In hypolimnetic aeration systems, the aeration system by bubble plume appears to be the most economic and perhaps the simplest among the systems used in Stanley lake (Colorado, U.S.A), even as other researches select Speece Cone aeration system, or the full airlift systems, or the TVA line diffuser. The purpose of this study is to show the oxygen transfer efficiencies in the different methods used in the technique of hypolimnetic aeration, and their effect on the preservation of the thermal stratification. As well, this study concentrate on the economic and technical sides associated to these aeration systems.


1967 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. McCombie

The thermal regime of South Bay is described from records collected from 1953 to 1962 with thermometers, thermographs, and bathythermographs, the last being cast at 11 stations along the bay and one in Lake Huron. Warming begins in April and thermal stratification is established in June. Shallow areas warm more rapidly than deep in the spring and cool more quickly in autumn. The boundary between the epilimnion and the thermocline becomes sharper as summer advances but the transition from thermocline to hypolimnion remains gradual. The average seasonal trend of surface temperatures is a sine function with a maximum of 66 F in mid August and a minimum of 34 F in late March, though values outside this range occur frequently. At 180 ft the maximum of 47 F is attained in November. At the lake and outermost bay stations there is a temperature slump in June and July which may be due to an upwelling in the lake. Evidence of an exchange of water between the lake and bay is seen in vertical temperature sections and water movements Variations in epilimnial temperatures are correlated with those of the air temperature, but variations in epilimnial and hypolimnial temperatures appear to be unrelated. Finally, literature describing the influence of temperature on the year class strength of smallmouth bass, the distribution of lake trout, the growth of yellow perch, and the life history of Pontoporeia in South Bay is reviewed.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. e32093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Schöttner ◽  
Christian Wild ◽  
Friederike Hoffmann ◽  
Antje Boetius ◽  
Alban Ramette

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Yang ◽  
Mathew Wells ◽  
Bailey McMeans ◽  
Hilary Dugan ◽  
James Rusak ◽  
...  

<p>Lakes are traditionally classified based on their thermal regime and trophic status. While this classification adequately captures many lakes, it is not sufficient to understand seasonally ice-covered lakes, the most common lake type on Earth. We describe the inverse thermal stratification in 19 highly varying lakes and derive a model that predicts the temperature profile as a function of wind stress, area, and depth. The results suggest an additional subdivision of seasonally ice-covered lakes to differentiate under-ice stratification. When ice forms in smaller and deeper lakes, inverse stratification will form with a thin buoyant layer of cold water (near 0<sup>o</sup>C) below the ice, which remains above a deeper 4<sup>o</sup>C layer. In contrast, the entire water column can cool to ~0<sup>o</sup>C in larger and shallower lakes. We suggest these alternative conditions for dimictic lakes be termed “cryostratified” and “cryomictic.”</p>


1994 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 2513-2519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil A. Ryan ◽  
Terry R. Marshall

Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) populations require cold water with high dissolved oxygen content for survival. We developed models that predict the availability of such habitat, using lake mean depth, which describes both the thermal regime and the initial oxygen reserves, and using a measure of primary productivity, which defines the subsequent oxygen demand of the sediments and water column. Measures of primary production include either phosphorus concentration, chlorophyll a concentration, or Secchi disk transparency. The models are presented as a series of seasonal oxygen depletion isopleths that predict the extent to which the oxygen content of thermally suitable habitat is lost during the period of thermal stratification. The presence or absence of native lake trout in lakes of northwestern Ontario superimposed on these graphs indicated that natural populations seldom occur in lakes in which the seasonal oxygen depletion exceeds 40%. This isopleth is a niche boundary in its representation of adverse temperature and oxygen conditions for lake trout. The delineation of this boundary permits the identification of lakes where lake trout populations could be seriously affected by cultural eutrophication, overfishing, or climate warming.


2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 389-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. R. Samal ◽  
D. C. Pierson ◽  
E. Schneiderman ◽  
Y. Huang ◽  
J. S. Read ◽  
...  

Global Circulation Model values of mean daily air temperature, wind speed and solar radiation for the 2081–2100 period are used to produce change factors that are applied to a 39 year record of local meteorological data to produce future climate scenarios. These climate scenarios are used to drive two separate, but coupled models: the Generalized Watershed Loading Functions-Variable Source Area model in order to simulate reservoir tributary inflows, and a one-dimensional reservoir hydrothermal model used to evaluate changes in reservoir thermal structure in response to changes in meteorological forcing and changes in simulated inflow. Comparisons between simulations based on present-day climate data (baseline conditions) and future simulations (change-factor adjusted baseline conditions) are used to evaluate the development and breakdown of thermal stratification, as well as a number of metrics that describe reservoir thermal structure, stability and mixing. Both epilimnion and hypolimnion water temperatures are projected to increase. Indices of mixing and stability show changes that are consistent with the simulated changes in reservoir thermal structure. Simulations suggest that stratification will begin earlier and the reservoir will exhibit longer and more stable periods of thermal stratification under future climate conditions.


Author(s):  
Fabio Stoch ◽  
Barbara Fiasca ◽  
Tiziana Di Lorenzo ◽  
Silvano Porfirio ◽  
Marco Petitta ◽  
...  

<p>In groundwater-fed springs, habitat characteristics are primarily determined by a complex combination of geomorphic features and physico-chemical parameters, while species assemblages are even more intricate. Springs host species either inhabiting the spring mouth, or colonizing spring habitats from the surface or from the aquifers which feed the springs. Groundwater species living in springs have been claimed as good candidates for identifying dual aquifer flowpaths or changes in groundwater pathways before reaching the spring outlets. However, the reliability of spring species as hydrological biotracers has not been widely investigated so far. Our study was aimed at analysing a large karstic spring system at three nested spatial scales in order: i) to assess, at whole spring system scale, the presence of a groundwater divide separating two aquifers feeding two spring units within a single spring system, by combining isotope analyses, physico-chemistry, and copepod distribution patterns; ii) to test, at vertical spring system scale, the effectiveness of copepods in discriminating surface and subsurface habitat patches within the complex mosaic spring environment; iii) to explore, at local spring unit level, the relative role of hydrochemistry and sediment texture as describers of copepod distribution among microhabitats. The results obtained demonstrated the presence of a hierarchical spatial structure, interestingly reflected in significant differences in assemblage compositions. Copepod assemblages differed between the two contiguous spring units, which were clearly characterized by their hydrochemistry and by significant differences in the groundwater flowpaths and recharge areas, as derived by the isotope analyses. The biological results suggested that stygobiotic species seem to be related to the origin of groundwater, suggesting their potential role as hydrological biotracers. At vertical scale, assemblage composition in surface and subsurface habitats was significantly different, both between spring units and among microhabitats, supporting strong habitat preferences of copepod species. At the smaller local scale, the response to habitat patchiness of subsurface copepod assemblages resulted in distribution patterns primarily defined by sediment texture, while the sensitivity to differences in hydrochemistry was negligible.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 529 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Schroeder ◽  
M. M. Lewis ◽  
A. D. Kilpatrick ◽  
K. E. Moseby

Context Apex predators occupy the top level of the trophic cascade and often perform regulatory functions in many ecosystems. Their removal has been shown to increase herbivore and mesopredator populations, and ultimately reduce species diversity. In Australia, it has been proposed that the apex predator, the dingo (Canis dingo), has the potential to act as a biological control agent for two introduced mesopredators, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the feral cat (Felis catus). Understanding the mechanisms of interaction among the three species may assist in determining the effectiveness of the dingo as a control agent and the potential benefits to lower-order species. Aims To test the hypotheses that feral cats and foxes attempt to both temporally avoid dingoes and spatially avoid areas of high dingo use. Methods Static and dynamic interaction methodologies based on global positioning system (GPS) telemetry data were applied to test temporal and spatial interactions between the two mesopredators (n = 15) and a dingo pair (n = 2). The experimental behavioural study was conducted in a 37-km2 fenced enclosure located in arid South Australia. Key results The dynamic interaction analysis detected neither attraction nor avoidance between dingoes and cats or foxes at short temporal scales. There was no suggestion of delayed interactions, indicating that dingoes were not actively hunting mesopredators on the basis of olfactory signalling. However, static interaction analysis suggested that, although broad home ranges of cats and foxes overlapped with dingoes, core home ranges were mutually exclusive. This was despite similar habitat preferences among species. Conclusions We found that avoidance patterns were not apparent when testing interactions at short temporal intervals, but were manifested at larger spatial scales. Results support previous work that suggested that dingoes kill mesopredators opportunistically rather than through active hunting. Implications Core home ranges of dingoes may provide refuge areas for small mammals and reptiles, and ultimately benefit threatened prey species by creating mesopredator-free space. However, the potential high temporal variation in core home-range positioning and small size of mutually exclusive areas suggested that further work is required to determine whether these areas provide meaningful sanctuaries for threatened prey.


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