Aphanizomenon schindleri sp.nov.: a new nostocacean cyanoprokaryote from the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario

1994 ◽  
Vol 51 (10) ◽  
pp. 2267-2273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hedy J. Kling ◽  
David L. Findlay ◽  
Jiri Komárek

Aphanizomenon schindleri sp.nov., a new nostocacean, bluegreen, cyanoprokaryote (cyanobacterium), is described from artificially eutrophied Canadian Shield lakes in the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario. It is unique to low conductivity Canadian Shield waters to which nutrients have been added, and it became the dominant bloom species after years of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) loading followed by N limitation (N:P ≤ 5:1 by mass) (Findlay et al. 1994. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 51: 2254–2266). The new Aphanizomenon species appears to be most closely related to A. gracile but also resembles species of Anabaena with straight filaments. It differs from other species of Aphanizomenon in cell dimensions, length and width of akinetes and heterocytes, and in akinete and end cell shape.


1998 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd J Sellers ◽  
Brian R Parker ◽  
David W Schindler ◽  
William M Tonn

The distribution of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) with respect to water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and light intensity was surveyed in three small Canadian Shield lakes at the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario. Based on hydroacoustic and gillnet surveys, there was considerable variation among lakes in temperatures occupied by lake trout during the summer. During the day, lake trout were concentrated at 4-8°C in Lake 375, broadly distributed from 6 to 15°C in Lake 442, and concentrated in the epilimnion at 19°C in Lake 468. At night, lake trout in all lakes occupied epilimnetic waters at 19-20°C. Lake trout inhabited highly oxygenated water, with 75-90% of fish at >6 mg dissolved oxygen ·L-1 throughout the spring and summer in all three lakes. Light intensity did not affect lake trout distribution in Lake 468 but may have contributed to lake trout daytime descent into cool waters in Lakes 375 and 442. We suggest that previously assumed niche boundaries of lake trout do not adequately describe critical habitat for the species in small lakes, the same lakes that are likely most sensitive to erosion of such habitat.



1983 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1905-1911 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Nero ◽  
D. W. Schindler

The population size of Mysis relicta in Lake 223 of the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario, decreased from 6 700 000 ± 1 330 000 (± 95% confidence limits) during August of 1978, to 270 000 ± 75 000 during August of 1979, a 96% decrease. Because Mysis, a cold stenotherm, is restricted to the metalimnion and hypolimnion of lakes during summer, the pH range encountered by the population was 5.51 to 6.32 in 1978 and 5.23 to 6.10 in 1979, even though mean pH values in epilimnion waters for the 2 yr were 5.84 and 5.60. A decrease in pH of its habitat from 6.2 to 5.6 during fall overturn in 1979 caused the elimination of the remaining 4% of the population. Comparisons with four control lakes suggested that the decline and disappearance were not normal occurrences in unstressed lakes. Concentrations of Zn, Al, Mn, Fe, Cd, Cu, Ni, and Hg in Lake 223 water were low, and concentrations in Mysis were less than or equal to those in animals from five control lakes, suggesting that the decline in this species was not due to the toxic effects of metals. All size classes were affected, so that direct toxicity of hydrogen ion may be responsible for this abrupt population collapse. These results suggest that Mysis may be a useful early indicator of acidification damage to Precambrian Shield lakes.



1971 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. A. J. Armstrong ◽  
D. W. Schindler

Water analyses in 1968 and 1969 from 40 small lakes within a small area of the Canadian Shield in northwestern Ontario gave mean values for Ca, Na, Mg, and K of 1.6, 0.9, 0.9, and 0.4 mg/liter with Ca > Na > Mg > K on a molar basis. HCO3, SO4, and Cl (on a smaller number of samples) were 4.1, 3.0, and 1.4 mg/liter. Total CO2 was variable in the range 0.3–12.0 mg/liter. Specific conductance was in the range 10–35 μmho/cm at 25 C and pH 5.4–7.5. Color was < 5–150 Hazen units, and plant pigments (as chlorophyll a) < 1–21 μg/liter. Total dissolved nitrogen was in the range 110–300 mg N/liter and total dissolved phosphorus 3–20 μg P/liter. NO3-N and PO4-P were often undetectable in summer, and reached winter maxima around 100 and 10 μg/liter.Total dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus contents of five lakes were computed at the beginning and end of periods of several weeks during summer stagnation. Changes were negligibly small in three of the deeper lakes, but the two shallowest showed increases of 0.22 and 0.62 g N/m2 and 0.03 and 0.13 g P/m2. Analyses of precipitation and stream waters were used, with stream flow rates, to calculate input and output of nutrients from four of these lakes during the same periods. Retention of nutrients had occurred in all, and it was concluded that in the two deeper lakes nutrients had been lost to the sediments, whereas in the two shallower ones the increases in dissolved nutrients found were derived from the sediments.Analyses of 33 other Canadian Shield lake areas and of 13 other dilute lakes in other regions are tabulated. Comparison with the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) lakes shows that the latter are more dilute than any in the Shield area except for some in the Northwest Territories, and much more dilute than any others in the world except for some alpine lakes in California.



1976 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Flett ◽  
R. D. Hamilton ◽  
N. E. R. Campbell

Previous methods of performing aquatic acetylene-reduction assays are described and several problems associated with them are discussed. A refinement of these older techniques is introduced and problems that it overcomes are also discussed. A depth profile of nitrogen fixation (C2H4 production), obtained by the refined technique, is shown for a fertilized Canadian Shield lake in the Experimental Lakes Area of northwestern Ontario.



1984 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. H. Hesslein ◽  
E. Slavicek

The sediment–water interactions and biological uptake of 226Ra are described for four small Canadian Shield lakes at the Experimental Lakes Area, Kenora, Ont. A single addition of 226Ra was made to each lake between 1970 and 1976. Approximately 90% of the added 226Ra initially sorbed to the sediments. Outflow from the lakes showed losses of only 5–11% 226Ra per year. Models are proposed for adsorption and outflow of 226Ra from lakes. Biological uptake and long-term 226Ra concentrations were measured in three species of macrophytes, crayfish, and five species of fish. Bioaccumulation ranged from 1100 to 5000 in macrophytes, 750 in crayfish, from 30 to 80 in large adult lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), white sucker (Catostomus commersoni), and lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), and from 230 to 1200 in fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas), pearl dace (Semotilus margarita), and northern redbelly dace (Chrosomus eos). The concept of Ra/Ca ratio in organisms versus water and food is used to explain the differences in bioaccumulation. 226Ra is discriminated against versus calcium by fish but favored by macrophytes and crayfish.



1990 ◽  
Vol 24 (9) ◽  
pp. 1367-1372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman D. Yan ◽  
Gerald L. Mackie ◽  
Peter J. Dillon


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.



1994 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 2739-2755 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Campbell

A comparative mass-balance approach is used to describe and quantify phosphorus (P) cycles during the open-water season in two unmanipulated Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) lakes. A bimodal cycle generally prevailed, in which water-column total phosphorus (TP = total dissolved P plus sestonic particulate P) peaked just after ice-out and again late in the summer. Changes in mass of water-column TP were often much larger than corresponding net external inputs. Shifts of P to and from either zooplankton or fish in the water column do not explain the P residuals. Rather, the bottom sediments must have been adding P to the water column. Short-term regeneration of P from the bottom sediments also probably occurs in artificially eutrophied ELA lakes. The mechanism of regeneration is probably biological. Other aspects of P cycling and P stoichiometry are discussed, particularly in relation to nutrient control of population structure and the function of primary and secondary producers.



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