Abstract
Lake 223 in the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario was experimentally-acidified with H2SO4 from 1976 to the present. Cladocerans increased in absolute and relative abundance and in total biomass when the pH of Lake 223 was lowered from 6.7 to 5.1. Comparing the cladoceran community at pH 6.7 (1974) with that at pH 5.1 (1981 to 1983), Daphnia galeata mendotae disappeared, Diaphanosoma birgei became rare, Holopedium gibberum increased in abundance and Daphnia catawba, recorded for the first time in 1980, became abundant. Bosmina longirostris became more abundant. Except for the decline in D. birgei, the changes in cladoceran species composition with acidification are consistent with known responses of these species to low pH. The increase in importance of cladocerans in 1981 to 1983 was at the expense of copepods. It was hypothesized to be caused by the decline in predation by small fish during 1981 to 1983 as acidification reduced minnow populations and inhibited reproduction in trout and sucker. The loss of the population of the invertebrate predator, the opposum shrimp, Mysis relicta, in 1979 had little effect on cladoceran biomass.
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Malley, D.F., Chang, P.S.S. Increase in the abundance of cladocera at pH 5.1 in experimentally-acidified lake 223, Experimental Lakes Area, Ontario. Water Air Soil Pollut 30, 629–637 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303326
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303326