Diversity and succession of pelagic microorganism communities in a newly restored Illinois River floodplain lake

Hydrobiologia, Aug 2017

While the success of restoration efforts frequently depends on reconstructing ecological communities, time series observations of community structure over the course of restoration are rare. Here, frequent sampling of bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, planktonic protozoa (ciliates and testaceans), and zooplankton was done along with measurements of select physical and chemical parameters during the first year of ecological restoration of Thompson Lake (TL), an Illinois River floodplain lake not connected to the river. The primary objective was to describe the microbial composition, diversity, and seasonal dynamics in TL and compare these results to similar measurements made in a nearby reference lake, river flood-pulsed Lake Chautauqua (LC). Strong seasonal patterns in bacterioplankton diversity were observed for both lakes. While TL phytoplankton diversity was lower and blooms more erratic than in LC, ciliate richness and abundance patterns were similar in both lakes. Rotifers and microcrustaceans were about 5× more abundant in TL than LC, with copepods and cladocerans exhibiting a fall abundance peak only in TL. When compared to temporal patterns of planktonic microorganisms in the reference lake (LC), the microbial dynamics in a lake recovering from decades of agriculture and drainage (TL) reflect the instability associated with early stages of ecological restoration.

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Diversity and succession of pelagic microorganism communities in a newly restored Illinois River floodplain lake

Diversity and succession of pelagic microorganism communities in a newly restored Illinois River floodplain lake 0 S. F. Paver Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago , 5734 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL , USA 1 M. J. Lemke (&) M. R. Randle Department of Biology, University of Illinois Springfield, One University Plaza , Springfield, IL 62703 , USA 2 Guest editors: Michael J. Lemke, A. Maria Lemke, & Jeffery W. Walk / Large-Scale Floodplain Restoration in the Illinois River Valley , USA 3 D. M. Kellerhals Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Illinois River Biological Station , 704 N. Schrader, Havana, IL 62644 , USA 4 A. D. Kent Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign , N-215 Turner Hall, 1102 S. Goodwin, Urbana, IL 61801 , USA 5 K. E. Dungey Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois Springfield, One University Plaza , Springfield, IL 62703 , USA 6 L. F. M. Velho UniCesumar/Istituto Cesumar de Cieˆncias, Tecnologia e Inovac ̧a ̃o (ICETI) - Programa de Po ́s-graduac ̧a ̃o em Tecnologias Limpas (PPGTL) , Av. Guedner 1610, Maringa ́, PR 87050-900 , Brazil 7 L. F. M. Velho L. C. Rodrigues Nu ́cleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura - Nupelia/PEA, Universidade Estadual de Maringa ́ , Av. Colombo, 5790 - Bloco G-90, Maringa ́, PR 87020-900 , Brazil While the success of restoration efforts frequently depends on reconstructing ecological communities, time series observations of community structure over the course of restoration are rare. Here, frequent sampling of bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, planktonic protozoa (ciliates and testaceans), and zooplankton was done along with measurements of select physical and chemical parameters during the first year of ecological restoration of Thompson Lake (TL), an Illinois River floodplain lake not connected to the river. The primary objective was to describe the microbial composition, diversity, and seasonal dynamics in TL and compare these results to similar measurements made in a nearby reference lake, river flood-pulsed Lake Chautauqua (LC). Strong seasonal patterns in bacterioplankton diversity were observed for both lakes. While TL phytoplankton diversity was lower and blooms more erratic than in LC, ciliate richness and abundance patterns were similar in both lakes. Rotifers and microcrustaceans were about 59 more abundant in TL than LC, with copepods and cladocerans exhibiting a fall abundance peak only in TL. When compared to temporal patterns of planktonic microorganisms in the reference lake (LC), the microbial dynamics in a lake recovering from decades of agriculture and drainage (TL) reflect the instability associated with early stages of ecological restoration. - Keywords Aquatic microbial ecology Flood pulse Bacteria Ciliates Plankton Shallow lake restoration Introduction Lands that are managed for either agriculture or quality lotic and lentic aquatic habitats are highly valued commodities, and yet, use by one often precludes existence of the other. As such, human use has degraded more than half of river systems worldwide to a status of moderately to highly threatened (Vo¨ro¨smarty et al., 2010) . Restorations of large river floodplains present unique and significant challenges due to the scale and assessment capacities associated with such projects. Because much of our present-day understanding of applied restoration ecology relies on projects that encompass small, defined systems, the question remains as to how applicable aspects of these projects are to larger-scale restoration efforts. Existing theories of what drives large flood-pulsed river systems (e.g., Junk et al., 1989; Tockner et al., 2000; Humphries et al., 2014) serve only as a theoretical framework for restoration (Sparks et al., 1990, 2016; Bayley, 1995; Sparks, 2010) and datasets substantiating these theories are sparse. Subsequently, there remains a critical need for datasets that can increase our understanding of floodplain river ecology and inform management of large river restoration efforts. Microorganisms can be used as sensitive indicators of environmental changes that provide insight into the progression of large-scale aquatic habitat restoration. Composition of lake microbial communities is in continuous flux at temperate latitudes, and each year these communities exhibit seasonal succession driven by environmental conditions and species interactions (Kent et al., 2007; Sommer et al., 2012) . Pelagic bacterial communities from several different systems have been shown to respond to and recover from water column disturbances rapidly (Jones et al., 2008; Shade et al., 2012) . Lake microorganisms are generally categorized into trophically interconnected groups. At the base of the microbial loop, bacterioplankton reincorporate dissolved organic matter into the microbial food web and contribute to biogeochemical cycling (Azam et al., 1983; Sherr (...truncated)


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Michael J. Lemke, Sara F. Paver, Keenan E. Dungey, Luiz Felipe M. Velho, Angela D. Kent, Luzia Cleide Rodrigues, Doyn M. Kellerhals, Michelle R. Randle. Diversity and succession of pelagic microorganism communities in a newly restored Illinois River floodplain lake, Hydrobiologia, 2017, pp. 1-24, DOI: 10.1007/s10750-017-3327-8