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JPR Advance Access published online on April 19, 2006
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbl006
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received August 6, 2005
Accepted April 4, 2006

Article

Correspondence among methods of zooplankton biomass measurement in lakes: Effect of community composition on optical plankton counter and size fractionated seston data

A. Patoine 1 *, B. Pinel-Alloul 1, G. Méthot 1, and M.-J. Leblanc 1

1 Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie et en Environnement Aquatique (GRIL), Départetment de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7, Canada

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
A. Patoine, E-mail: Alain.Patoine{at}uregina.ca


  Abstract

The effectiveness of the optical particle counter (OPC) to estimate zooplankton biomass depends on the variability in zooplankton shape and the presence of interfering particles. In marine environments where zooplankton are composed of similarly shaped copepods, an average shape is relatively easily obtained. However, in freshwater environments spheroid cladocerans mix with ellipsoid copepods and make the application of a single morphometric model difficult. To expand the use of the OPC to freshwater environments, we developed new ellipsoid models for three common lake types (eutrophic, mesotrophic, oligotrophic). In addition, we assessed how closely different size fractions of seston corresponded to zooplankton biomass. When expressed in common dry mass units, OPC- and seston-derived zooplankton biomass estimates showed a 1:1 correspondence with taxonomically-derived estimates in productive lakes (r>+0.70, p<0.001) but not in oligotrophic systems. OPC ellipse models differed among lake sets (major to minor axis ratios: 1.5 to 2.7), but were not a simple function of the cladoceran-to-copepod ratio. The seston size fraction that provided the best estimates of zooplankton biomass was smaller in mesotrophic lakes (>200 µm) than in eutrophic or oligotrophic lakes (>500 µm). The presence of algae and rotifers had no detectable influence on OPC and size-fractionated seston estimates. Overall, these analyses suggest that OPC and seston provide reliable estimates of lacustrine zooplankton biomass as long as region-specific ellipse models and size fractions, respectively, are used.

Communicating Editor: KJ Flynn


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