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.
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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)