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JPR Advance Access published online on March 30, 2004
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbh058
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Received November 18, 2003;
accepted February 20, 2004

Article

Comparison of pelagic food webs in lakes along a trophic gradient and with seasonal aspects: influence of resource and predation

Brigitte Auer 1*, Ulrich Elzer 1, and Hartmut Arndt 1

1 University of Cologne, Institute of Zoology, Department of General Ecology and Limnology, Weyertal 119, D-50923 Cologne, Germany

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: brigitte.auer{at}web.de.


  Abstract

Composition and seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton, bacteria, and zooplankton (including heterotrophic flagellates (HF), ciliates, rotifers and crustaceans) were studied in 55 lakes in Northern Germany with different trophy ranging from mesotrophic to hypertrophic. Mean abundance and biomass of all groups significantly increased significantly with lake trophy, but bacteria and metazooplankton showed only weak correlation and a slight increase with chlorophyll concentration. Composition of phytoplankton showed a dominance of cyanobacteria in hypertrophic lakes, whereas the importance of chrysophytes and dinophytes decreased with an increase in trophy. Protozoans (HF and ciliates) made up 24% (mesotrophic lakes) to 42% (hypertrophic lakes) of total zooplankton biomass on average, and were dominated by ciliates (62-80% of protozoan biomass). Seasonally, protozoans can build up to 60% of zooplankton biomass in spring, when HF can contribute about 50% to protozoan biomass. Correlation analyses revealed significant relationships between the planktonic groups and indicated that pelagic food webs are influenced both by bottom-up as well as topdown mechanisms. Comparing lakes along a trophic gradient, resource parameters seem to be of major importance, hereas seasonal changes within a lake were may be regulated by the presence of predators.


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