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Phytoplankton, periphyton, and zooplankton patterns in the pelagic and littoral regions of a large subtropical shallow lake

  • PHYTOPLANKTON & BIOTIC INTERACTIONS
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Abstract

This study aimed at understanding the patterns among size structure of the phytoplankton, periphyton, and zooplankton considering the spatial variability (pelagic and littoral zones) in a subtropical large shallow polymictic lake (Lake Mangueira, southern Brazil). Water samples were gathered at intervals of 3, 5, and 15 days, for 60 days during summer 2012, for physical, chemical, and biological analyses (abundance and maximum linear dimension of subsurface zooplankton, phytoplankton, and glass slide-colonized periphyton) in both lake zones. A summer storm on the 20th day disturbed the periphyton succession in the littoral and pelagic zones. Phytoplankton size classes varied similarly to the smaller size of zooplankton in the pelagic zone, whereas most of periphyton size classes coincided with the larger zooplankton in the littoral zone, evidencing that zooplankton in Lake Mangueira may exploit both communities and both compartments (littoral and pelagic zones). The study demonstrated that the patterns of those communities are dynamic and closely related to the environmental variability in Lake Mangueira.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the CAPES (Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) for a doctoral grant awarded to the second author. We are grateful to CNPq and Dr. Lucia H.R. Rodrigues for logistical support; Dr. Lacina Maria de Freitas-Teixeira for providing algal raw data; the IPH (Hydraulic Research Institute, at UFRGS) technicians for sampling support; and Gustavo F. Hartmann for zooplankton counting. The English language review was done by Cary Collett.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, CEP 91501–970, Brazil

    Luciana de Souza Cardoso & Luciane Oliveira Crossetti

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Botânica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Denise Matias de Faria

  3. Instituto de Pesquisas Hidráulicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    David da Motta Marques

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  1. Luciana de Souza Cardoso
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  2. Denise Matias de Faria
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  3. Luciane Oliveira Crossetti
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  4. David da Motta Marques
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Correspondence to Luciana de Souza Cardoso.

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Guest editors: Hugo Sarmento, Irina Izaguirre, Vanessa Becker & Vera L. M. Huszar / Phytoplankton and its Biotic Interactions

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Cardoso, L.d., Faria, D.M.d., Crossetti, L.O. et al. Phytoplankton, periphyton, and zooplankton patterns in the pelagic and littoral regions of a large subtropical shallow lake. Hydrobiologia 831, 119–132 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3729-2

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