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Relative importance of periphyton and phytoplankton in turbid and clear vegetated shallow lakes from the Pampa Plain (Argentina): a comparative experimental study

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Abstract

We analyzed experimentally the relative contribution of phytoplankton and periphyton in two shallow lakes from the Pampa Plain (Argentina) that represent opposite scenarios according to the alternative states hypothesis for shallow lakes: a clear lake with submerged macrophytes, and a turbid lake with high phytoplankton biomass. To study the temporal changes of both microalgal communities under such contrasting conditions, we placed enclosures in the littoral zone of each lake, including natural phytoplankton and artificial substrata, half previously colonized by periphyton until a mature stage and half clean to analyze periphyton colonization. In the clear vegetated shallow lake, periphyton chlorophyll a concentrations were 3–6 times higher than those of the phytoplankton community. In contrast, phytoplankton chlorophyll a concentrations were 76–1,325 times higher than those of periphyton in the turbid lake. Here, under light limitation conditions, the colonization of the periphyton was significantly lower than in the clear lake. Our results indicate that in turbid shallow lakes, the light limitation caused by phytoplankton determines a low periphyton biomass dominated by heterotrophic components. In clear vegetated shallow lakes, where nitrogen limitation probably occurs, periphyton may develop higher biomass, most likely due to their higher efficiency in nutrient recycling.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the owners of the farms La Juanita and El Triunfo for allowing us the access both lakes and taking care of our experimental devices. We also thank the Laboratorio de Ecología y Fotobiología Acuática from IIB-INTECH (Chascomús) and the members of Laboratorio de Limnología (UBA) for their field assistances. We also thank Dr. Luz Allende for language revision, Dr. Rodrigo Sinistro for his assistance with the figure edition and to two anonymous reviewers and the Handling Editor for their useful comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by a grant of the University of Buenos Aires (UBACyT X838).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Depto. Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    María Laura Sánchez, Haydée Pizarro, Guillermo Tell & Irina Izaguirre

  2. Consejo Nacional de Investigación Científica y Técnica (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    María Laura Sánchez, Haydée Pizarro, Guillermo Tell & Irina Izaguirre

Authors
  1. María Laura Sánchez
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  2. Haydée Pizarro
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  3. Guillermo Tell
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  4. Irina Izaguirre
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to María Laura Sánchez.

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Guest editors: M. Meerhoff, M. Beklioglu, R. Burks, F. García-Rodríguez, N. Mazzeo & B. Moss / Structure and Function of World Shallow Lakes: Proceedings from the 6th Shallow Lakes Congress, held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, 23–28 November, 2008

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Sánchez, M.L., Pizarro, H., Tell, G. et al. Relative importance of periphyton and phytoplankton in turbid and clear vegetated shallow lakes from the Pampa Plain (Argentina): a comparative experimental study. Hydrobiologia 646, 271–280 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0181-3

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