CHANGES IN PHYTOPLANKTON SIZE-CLASS ABUNDANCE AND SPECIES COMPOSITIONCOINCIDING WITH CHANGES IN WATER CHEMISTRY AND ZOOPLANKTON COMMUNITY STRUCTURE OF LAKE MICHIGAN, 1983 TO 1992
Jc. Makarewicz et al., CHANGES IN PHYTOPLANKTON SIZE-CLASS ABUNDANCE AND SPECIES COMPOSITIONCOINCIDING WITH CHANGES IN WATER CHEMISTRY AND ZOOPLANKTON COMMUNITY STRUCTURE OF LAKE MICHIGAN, 1983 TO 1992, Journal of Great Lakes research, 24(3), 1998, pp. 637-657
Phytoplankton and zooplankton were collected at offshore sites of Lake
Michigan during 37 cruises in the spring and summer from 1983 to 1992
. For the period, 39 common phytoplankton species accounted for 96.0%
of the total abundance and 85.6% of the biomass. Over the 10-year stud
y, the lake-wide average spring and summer phytoplankton biomass in th
e pelagic waters ranged from 0.27 to 1.2 g/m(3) (mean. +/- S.E. = 0.54
+/- 0.03 g/m3) and phytoplankton abundance ranged from 5,132 to 39,78
0 cells/mL (mean +/- S.E. = 18,291 +/- 822 cells/mL). Mesotrophic diat
oms accounted for 47.2% of the total phytoplankton biomass. The lack o
f a trend in the ratio of mesotrophic to eutrophic diatom indicator sp
ecies suggested that no change in trophic status of the pelagic region
occurred during the 1983 to 92 period; that is, the water quality of
the offshore of Lake Michigan did not change. A year-to-year shift in
dominance from one mesotrophic diatom species to another was evident.
Over the 10-year period, flagellates accounted for 52.2% of the summer
phytoplankton biomass. The data support the concept of a shift in sum
mer species composition away from blue-green algae dominance to flagel
lates prior to 1982. However after 1987 the relative importance of the
> 70 mu m size class increased to over 21% of the phytoplankton abund
ance in the spring and over 55% in the summer. In particular, the colo
nial blue-greens, Anacystis and Aphanothece, became substantially more
prevalent during the summer, while the flagellates, Chromulina and Oc
hromonas, decreased in abundance. The changes in the relative abundanc
e of phytoplankton size classes and species composition were examined
to determine if they correlated with either the top-down mediated chan
ges in the zooplankton community during the 1980s and 1990s or with an
y bottom-up variability in nutrient chemistry. Canonical correspondenc
e analysis (CCA) suggested a significant portion of the variability of
the spring and summer phytoplankton size classes from 1983-1992 (88.0
% and 99.2%, respectively) was explained by environmental axis I. Prim
ary determinants of relative abundance of phytoplankton size class inc
luded nutrients (silica, total phosphorus, and N:P ratio) and abundanc
e of some species of zooplankton. Specifically, Diaptomus minutus, D.
ashlandi, D. sicilis, and Daphnia galeata mendotae were inversely corr
elated with the 0 to 10 mu m size class, which we interpret as a grazi
ng effect on phytoplankton size structure, and positively correlated w
ith an increase in abundance of the > 70 mu m size class of phytoplank
ton. CCA suggested that top-down and bottom-up effects were affecting
phytoplankton size composition and abundance simultaneously.