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Late-summer phytoplankton in western Lake Erie (Laurentian Great Lakes): bloom distributions, toxicity, and environmental influences

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Abstract

Phytoplankton abundance and composition and the cyanotoxin, microcystin, were examined relative to environmental parameters in western Lake Erie during late-summer (2003–2005). Spatially explicit distributions of phytoplankton occurred on an annual basis, with the greatest chlorophyll (Chl) a concentrations occurring in waters impacted by Maumee River inflows and in Sandusky Bay. Chlorophytes, bacillariophytes, and cyanobacteria contributed the majority of phylogenetic-group Chl a basin-wide in 2003, 2004, and 2005, respectively. Water clarity, pH, and specific conductance delineated patterns of group Chl a, signifying that water mass movements and mixing were primary determinants of phytoplankton accumulations and distributions. Water temperature, irradiance, and phosphorus availability delineated patterns of cyanobacterial biovolumes, suggesting that biotic processes (most likely, resource-based competition) controlled cyanobacterial abundance and composition. Intracellular microcystin concentrations corresponded to Microcystis abundance and environmental parameters indicative of conditions coincident with biomass accumulations. It appears that environmental parameters regulate microcystin indirectly, via control of cyanobacterial abundance and distribution.

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Acknowledgments

This work is a portion of the multi-disciplinary research program of the Center of Excellence for Great Lakes and Human Health (http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/Centers/HumanHealth/), funded by the Oceans and Human Health Initiative of NOAA’s Office of Global Programs and the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research, a joint institute of the University of Michigan and NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Reference to proprietary names are necessary to report factually on available data; however, the University of South Florida, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Grand Valley State University, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources neither guarantee nor warrant the standard of a product and imply no approval of a product to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. The authors express appreciation to the crew of the R. V. Laurentian for assistance in sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Institute of Oceanography, University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    David F. Millie

  2. Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Lake Michigan Field Station, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Muskegon, MI, 49441, USA

    Gary L. Fahnenstiel

  3. Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105, USA

    Julianne Dyble Bressie

  4. College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    Ryan J. Pigg

  5. Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, Muskegon, MI, 49441, USA

    Richard R. Rediske

  6. Division of Wildlife, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, Huron, OH, 44839, USA

    David M. Klarer

  7. Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Beaufort, NC, 28516, USA

    Patricia A. Tester & R. Wayne Litaker

  8. Florida Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Saint Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    Ryan J. Pigg

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Millie, D.F., Fahnenstiel, G.L., Dyble Bressie, J. et al. Late-summer phytoplankton in western Lake Erie (Laurentian Great Lakes): bloom distributions, toxicity, and environmental influences. Aquat Ecol 43, 915–934 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-009-9238-7

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