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JPR Advance Access published online on March 7, 2005
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi013
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received November 18, 2004
Accepted February 24, 2005

Article

How important is bacterial carbon to planktonic grazers in a turbid, subtropical lake?

Kirsten Work 1*, Karl Havens 1, Bruce Sharfstein 1, and Therese East 1

1 South Florida Water Management District, 3301 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach, FL 33406, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Kirsten Work, E-mail: kwork{at}stetson.edu


  Abstract

This study examined the relative contributions of bacterial and phytoplankton production to the pelagic carbon flow of Lake Okeechobee, a large and shallow subtropical lake. Due to the predominance of cyanobacteria in this lake, we hypothesized that bacterial carbon flow to grazers would be larger than phytoplankton carbon flow to grazers. Using epifluorescent and light microscopy and radiotracer techniques, we measured the carbon biomass of planktonic functional groups and carbon flow between these groups. The functional groups that we used in this study included: picophytoplankton, autotrophic nanoflagellates (ANAN), microphytoplankton, bacteria, heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNAN), ciliates, microzooplankton (rotifers and copepod nauplii), and macrozooplankton (cladocerans, copepodites, and adult copepods). Microphytoplankton dominated the carbon biomass of all plankton, whereas the calanoid copepod, Diaptomus, dominated the carbon biomass of the grazers. Phytoplankton carbon flow often was higher than bacterial carbon flow to grazers; however, bacterial carbon constituted a large percentage of the total carbon flow to grazers (33.7 ± 22.4%). Bacterial carbon provided roughly one quarter of the carbon flow to macrozooplankton (27.1 ± 25.4%), whereas it provided half of the carbon flow to microzooplankton (57.4 ± 20.3%) and to protozoans (47.2 ± 25.8%). These results suggest that microbial pathways play an important role in the energetics of subtropical lake plankton communities. Although microbial loop pathways are important in many systems, direct bacterial carbon flow to macrozooplankton also may be important in copepod- and cyanobacteriadominated lakes.


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