Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Moss, B.
Right arrow Articles by Balls, H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Moss, B.
Right arrow Articles by Balls, H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH | VOLUME 11 | NUMBER 4 | PAGES 839-867 | 1989
© Oxford University Press

research-article

Phytoplankton distribution in a floodplain lake and river system. II Seasonal changes in the phytoplankton communities and their control by hydrology and nutrient availability

Brian Mossa and Hilary Balls

School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Norwich, UK aPresent address: Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, The University Liverpool, UK

Received on October 28, 1988; accepted on March 7, 1989 Phytoplankton community development and water chemistry were studied for 2 years in the lowland R.Bure and most of the Broads (shallow lakes) associated with it. The data were analysed in terms of ‘time for development’, which is the minimum estimated time that an average parcel of water takes to reach a site plus that it spends in it before it moves on downstream. This allows to some extent for the delaying effects that the Broads have on downriver water movement. Regressions of mean chlorophyll a on time for development were linear and suggested that the upstream Broads, where phytoplankton first develops in quantity in the system, have retained the water for longer than anticipated from hydrological measurements. They effectively added several weeks to the time for development. Available phosphate and nitrate concentrations decreased with time for development. Those for silicate increased. Seasonal changes in the upper part of the study area were largely in centric diatom species. Pennate diatoms and cyanophytes became predominant in the lower stretches. All major species were present at the extreme upper end of the stretch. With increasing development time, in a water mass dominated by water entering at the head of the study area, a succession of Cyclotella meneghiniana, Stephanodiscus hantzschii and Melosira species was followed by Oscillatoria species then Diatoma elongatum, Synedra ulna and Anabaena planctonica. Possible reasons for these changes are discussed. Over 80 other taxa were present though none were so abundant as the above species. The succession is interpreted in terms of nutrient physiology and algal growth rates to generate hypotheses for experimental testing.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.