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JPR Advance Access originally published online on January 11, 2006
Journal of Plankton Research 2006 28(4):361-373; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi121
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Spring weather determines the relative importance of ciliates, rotifers and crustaceans for the initiation of the clear-water phase in a large, deep lake

Katrin Tirok* and Ursula Gaedke

Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Modelling, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Maulbeerallee 2, D-14415 Potsdam, Germany

* Corresponding Author: tirok{at}uni-potsdam.de

Received November 4, 2005; accepted in principle December 14, 2005; accepted for publication January 9, 2006; published online January 11, 2006
Communicating editor: K.J. Flynn

Clear-water phase (CWP) is an important event in seasonal plankton succession. We examined the influence of all herbivorous zooplankton on its initiation under different weather and climatic conditions using up to 19 years of observations from the large, deep Lake Constance (Europe) and estimates of relative clearance rates. A CWP occurred regularly, even if daphnid biomass was still very low. CWP was attributed to strong grazing either by a daphnid-dominated zooplankton community or by a diverse assemblage consisting of micro- and meso-zooplankton. Both types of zooplankton communities occurred with approximately the same frequency. The timing of the CWP was unrelated to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) but correlated with the wind-dependent intensity of deep vertical mixing 3 months earlier, during early spring. Less mixing enabled early growth of phytoplankton, ciliates and rotifers despite low temperatures, which prevented daphnid development at this time. This resulted in enhanced grazing of ciliates and rotifers, which increased the importance of phytoplankton less edible for most ciliates, rotifers and daphnids. Ciliates clearly dominated the grazing pressure on phytoplankton throughout spring, maintaining high biomasses together with the phytoplankton for up to 2 months. A CWP was observed when herbivores grazing on larger phytoplankton developed in addition to ciliates.


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