scholarly journals Whole-lake algal responses to a century of acidic industrial deposition on the Canadian Shield

2002 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf D Vinebrooke ◽  
Sushil S Dixit ◽  
Mark D Graham ◽  
John M Gunn ◽  
Yu-Wei Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Light Availability ◽  
Boreal Lakes ◽  
Environmental Stressors ◽  
Algal Community ◽  
Sedimentary Pigments ◽  
Metal Levels ◽  
Lake Acidity ◽  
Algal Abundance ◽  
Acidified Lakes

A century of cultural acidification is hypothesized to have altered algal community structure in boreal lakes. To date, this hypothesis has remained untested because of both the lack of data predating the onset of industrial pollution and incomplete estimates of whole-lake algal community structure. High-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) of sedimentary pigments was used to quantify whole-lake algal responses to acid deposition in six boreal lakes located in Killarney Park, Ontario, Canada. Concomitant significant increases in chlorophyll and carotenoid concentrations, diatom-inferred lake acidity, and metal levels since 1900 suggested that algal abundances in four acidified lakes and one small, circumneutral lake were enhanced by aerial pollution. An alternate explanation is that increased acidity and underwater light availability in the acidified lakes shifted algal abundance towards phytobenthos and deepwater phytoplankton, whose pigment signatures were better preserved in the sediments. Taxonomically diagnostic pigment stratigraphies were consistent with shifts in algal community structure towards filamentous green phytobenthos and deepwater phytoflagellates in the acidified lakes. Our findings suggest that decades of aerial pollution have altered the base of foodwebs in boreal lakes, potentially rendering them less resilient to other environmental stressors.

Algal community responses to shallow lake dystrophication1This article is derived from a special session entitled “A New Hydrology: Inflow Effects on Ecosystem Form and Functioning” that took place at the February 2011 ASLO Aquatic Sciences conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (8) ◽  
pp. 1433-1443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew N. Waters ◽  
Michael F. Piehler ◽  
Joseph M. Smoak ◽  
Thomas S. Bianchi
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Algal Community ◽  
Terrestrial Organic Matter ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Lignin Phenols ◽  
Algal Groups ◽  
Algal Abundance ◽  
Aquatic Sciences ◽  
Multiple Chemical

This research details changes in lake algal community structure that occurred during dystrophication. We conducted a paleolimnological investigation of Pungo Lake, a shallow, dystrophic system near the coast of North Carolina, USA. Multiple chemical and biological proxies were measured on a sediment core, including sedimentary photosynthetic pigments, lignin-phenols, nutrients, and δ13C. Data analysis identified three zones of algal community structure corresponding to three regimes of organic matter inputs. Predystrophic conditions represented a period of low organic inputs but substantial algal abundance (diatoms and other algal types). The period of dystrophication preceded European settlement (1850) and showed an increase in organic matter deposition, lignin, and a change in lignin type. Lignin-phenols and δ13C signatures of organic matter indicated that terrestrial organic matter inputs increased during this period, possibly as a result of wetland expansion. Dystrophication also corresponded to an increase in algal groups that favor low light environments (cyanobacteria and cryptophytes).

scholarly journals Potential impact of increased temperature and CO2 on particulate dimethylsulfoniopropionate in the Southeastern Bering Sea

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Lee ◽  
Sarah F. Riseman ◽  
Clinton E. Hare ◽  
David A. Hutchins ◽  
Karine Leblanc ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Bering Sea ◽  
Feedback Mechanism ◽  
Climate Feedback ◽  
Algal Community ◽  
Central Basin ◽  
Phytoplankton Assemblages ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Relative Abundances

The potential impact of elevated sea surface temperature (SST) and pCO2 on algal community structure and particulate dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSPp) concentrations in the southeastern Bering Sea was examined using a shipboard “Ecostat” continuous culture system. The ecostat system was used to mimic the conditions projected to exist in the world's oceans by the end of this century (i.e. elevated pCO2 (750 ppm) and elevated SST (ambient + 4°C). Two experiments were conducted using natural phytoplankton assemblages from the high-nutrient low-chlorophyll (HNLC) central basin and from the middle domain of the southeastern continental shelf. At the HNLC site, the relative abundances of haptophytes and pelagophytes were higher and the relative abundance of diatoms lower under “greenhouse” conditions (i.e. combined 750 ppm CO2 and elevated temperature) than control conditions (380 ppm CO2 and ambient temperature). This shift in algal community structure was accompanied by increases in DMSPp (2–3 fold), DMSPp:Chl a (2–3 fold) and DMSP:PON (2 fold). At the continental shelf site, the changes in the relative abundances of haptophytes, pelagophytes and diatoms under “greenhouse” conditions were similar to those observed at the HNLC site, with 2.5 fold increases in DMSPp, 50–100% increases in DMSPp:Chl a and 1.8 fold increases in DMSP:PON. At both locations, changes in community structure and the DMSPp parameters were largely driven by increasing temperature. The observed changes were also consistent with the phytoplankton-DMS-albedo climate feedback mechanism proposed in the Charlson-Lovelock-Andreae-Warren (CLAW) hypothesis.

Algal turf scrubber (ATS) floways on the Great Wicomico River, Chesapeake Bay: productivity, algal community structure, substrate and chemistry1

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter H. Adey ◽  
H. Dail Laughinghouse ◽  
John B. Miller ◽  
Lee-Ann C. Hayek ◽  
Jesse G. Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Chesapeake Bay ◽  
Algal Community ◽  
Algal Turf ◽  
Algal Turf Scrubber

Monitoring metal levels in water and multiple biomarkers in the grouper (Epinephelus tauvina) to assess environmental stressors on the Arabian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 301-314
Author(s):  
Ashraf M Abdel-Moneim ◽  
Mohamed A Al-Kahtani ◽  
Omar M Elmenshawy ◽  
Hany Elsawy ◽  
Aly M Hafez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
Environmental Stressors ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
Hepatocellular Necrosis ◽  
Metal Levels ◽  
Multiple Biomarkers ◽  
Gill Lamellae

In this field study, the levels of heavy metals (Pb, Fe, Co, Cu, and Zn) in water and a suite of biochemical and histological biomarkers in the grouper ( Epinephelus tauvina) were assessed at four sites in the Arabian Gulf. Samples were taken from a relatively non-urban reference site, called Salwa (S1), and three effluent-dominated sites, namely Al-aziziyah in southern Dammam city (S2), the Al-Jubail coast (S3), and Manifa (S4). Toxic metals, namely Pb and Co (at all sites) and Fe (at S3), were elevated in water samples relative to the internationally permissible limits. In fish, induced levels of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in the liver at S3 and S4 were higher than those of the reference fish at S1. Additionally, the level of the lipid peroxidation (LPO) product (malondialdehyde (MDA)) was significantly increased in gills (at S3) and liver (at S2 and S3). There was an inhibition of catalase activities in the gills of fish from S2 to S4 and significantly higher activity levels of superoxide dismutase in the gills of fish from S4. Histopathological features such as aneurysms in gill vessels, deformed gill lamellae, increases in liver melano-macrophage centers, and hepatocellular necrosis were most abundant at sites where significant pollution problems exist (i.e. S2–S4). The results reveal that the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, in the Arabian Gulf, is still contaminated, as indicated by elevated HSP70, LPO content and numbers of histological lesions, and that monitoring of contaminants and their effects should be continued in this region.

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