Urrutia-Cordero, P. and Langvall, O. and Weyhenmeyer, G.A. and Hylander, S. and Lundgren, M. and Papadopoulou, S. and Striebel, M. and Lind, L. and Langenheder, S. (2024) Cyanobacteria can benefit from freshwater salinization following the collapse of dominant phytoplankton competitors and zooplankton herbivores. Freshwater Biology, 69 (12). pp. 1748-1759. ISSN 0046-5070
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Abstract
Freshwater salinization is an increasing threat to lakes worldwide, but despite beinga widespread issue, little is known about its impact on biological communities atthe base of the food chain.Here we used a mesocosm set-up coupled with modern high-frequency sensortechnology to identify short- and longer-term responses of phytoplankton to sa-linization in an oligotrophic lake. We tested the effects of salinization over a gra -dient of increasing salt concentrations that can be found in natural lakes exposedto road salt contamination (added salt range: from 0 to 1500 mg Cl− L−1). The high-frequency chlorophyll-a (chl-a) fluorescence measurements showed anincreasing divergence of chl-a concentrations along the salinization gradient overtime, with substantially lower concentrations at higher salt levels. At the sub-dailyscale, we found a profound suppression of day–night signal cycles with increasingsalinity, which could be related to physiological stress due to the impairment ofphotosynthesis via effects on the photosystem II or potential changes in the ac-tive migration of phytoplankton. Community analyses revealed a similar declinepattern for the total phytoplankton biomass and a collapse of the total zooplank-ton biomass. Interestingly, we found a loss of phytoplankton diversity coupledwith a compositional re-organization involving the loss of dominant green algaebut increased biomass of salt-tolerant cyanobacteria. Altogether, these results suggest that specific cyanobacterial taxa can benefit fromfreshwater salinization following the collapse of dominant phytoplankton competi-tors and zooplankton herbivores. The results also highlight the value of autonomoussensor technology to capture novel, small-scale ecological responses to freshwatersalinization, and thereby to track fast changes in primary producer communities
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QS Ecology |
| Depositing User: | Pablo Urrutia Cordero |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Jan 2025 09:22 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Jan 2025 09:22 |
| URI: | http://eprints.imdea-agua.org:13000/id/eprint/1688 |
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