Noriko Takamura

Effects of aquatic macrophytes on water quality and phytoplankton communities in shallow lakes

We investigated aquatic macrophytes, water quality, and phytoplankton biomass and species composition in three shallow lakes with different levels of vegetation cover and nutrient concentration in Kushiro Moor, during August 2000. Trapa japonica can live in a wide range of nutrient levels. This species forms an environment with a steeper extinction of light, higher concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), lower concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) near the bottom, and lower concentrations of nitrate + nitrite and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) than other vegetation types. The pH was much higher in a Polygonum amphibium community, and the DO near the bottom did not decrease compared to a T. japonica community in the summer. The relationship between chlorophyll a and the limiting nutrient (total phosphorus (TP) when total nitrogen (TN) : TP is ≥10 and TN/10 when TN : TP is <10) significantly differed between lakes with and without submerged vegetation. The chlorophyll a concentrations at a given nutrient level were significantly lower in water with submerged macrophytes than in water without them. Correspondence analysis showed that the difference in phytoplankton community structure across sites was largely due to the presence or absence of submerged macrophytes, and the ordination of phytoplankton species in the lakes with submerged macrophytes is best explained by environmental gradients of TN, chlorophyll, pH and SRP.

FATE OF THE TOXIC CYCLIC HEPTAPEPTIDES, THE MICROCYSTINS, FROM BLOOMS OF MICROCYSTIS (CYANOBACTERIA) IN A HYPERTROPHIC LAKE1

The in situ fate of the toxic cyclic heptapeptides, the microcystins, produced by blooms of Microcystis was examined at two stations in a hypertrophic Japanese lake. Microcystins were detected in all samples of Microcystis with quantities varying seasonally and spatially (230–950 μg · g dry wt−1 at St. 1 and 160–746 μg · g dry wt−1 at St. 2) and composed of microcystin‐LR, ‐RR, and‐YR. Microcystin‐RR was the dominant toxin in most samples. A large amount of microcystin (1.1 μg · L−1) was detected in only one sample of filtered lake water. Accumulation of microcystin in zooplankton was indirectly estimated from a newly developed equation model. Large amounts of microcystin (75–1387 μg · g dry wt−1) were accumulated in the zooplankton community, which consisted of two cladocerans, Bosmina fatalis Burckhardt and Diaphanosoma brachyurum Lieve, and a copepod, Cyclops vicinus Uljanin, that co‐occurred with the toxic Microcystis blooms. The maximum percent of microcystin content in zooplankton to that in Microcystis was 202%. Among the three species of zooplankton, only B. fatalis seemed to be responsible for accumulation of the microcystins because C. vicinus appeared to avoid contact with Microcystis cells and D. brachyurum did not consume colonies of Microcystis. Microcystins may be transferred to higher trophic levels through B. fatalis.

Effects of simetryne on growth of various freshwater algal taxa.

The sensitivity of 56 algal strains, representing 7 taxonomic groups to the triazine herbicide, simetryne, was examined using EC50 values for growth. There was a wide range of values from 6.5 to 1500 microg litre(-1). The Volvocales (Chlorophyceae, Chlorophyta) and Cyanophyceae (Cyanophyta) as a whole were the most sensitive, whereas the Desmidiales (Charophyceae, Chlorophyta) and Bacillariophyceae (Chromophyta) were the most tolerant, although sensitivity differed among strains of a single species. Sensitive and tolerant species were both isolated from samples collected at the same site. The results suggest that changes in species composition and relative abundance will occur when herbicides are applied in natural habitats.

Effects of permethrin on phytoplankton and zooplankton in an enclosure ecosystem in a pond

The insecticide permethrin (a synthetic pyrethroid) was applied into enclosures (1 m diameter and 3.5 m deep) placed in a pond. The chemical was rapidly removed from the water to the sediments. Daphnia rosea and its predator, Chaoborus flavicans were seriously affected by this application and disappeared from the enclosure. Acanthodiaptomus pacificus increased as Chaoborus decreased. Two species of Cladocera which had not been observed before the treatment, established their populations after 10 days, when Chaoborus had not recovered. Whereas Tropocyclops pracinus declined when permethrin was applied at 10 µg 1−1, the number of rotifer Keratella valga increased, suggesting a close relationship between these two species.Photosynthesis and phytoplankton were not significantly affected by permethrin, except for Ceratium hirundinella. The dominance of Dinobryon divergens continued in the treated enclosures, whereas other flagellate species, Scenedesmus and Nitzschia occurred during the second half of the experiments in the control enclosure and pond.

PICOPHYTOPLANKTON BIOMASS IN RELATION TO LAKE TROPHIC STATE AND THE TN:TP RATIO OF LAKE WATER IN JAPAN1

Picophytoplankton biomass and its contribution to total phytoplankton biomass were investigated in relation to the nutrient concentration and total N: total P ratio of the epilimnetic waters of 42 Japanese lakes during the warm season in 1991 (April–October). Picophytoplankton biomass (as chlorophyll a) in meso‐, eu‐, and hypertrophic lakes was significantly higher than those observed in oligotrophic lakes. However, picophytoplankton biomass increased significantly with increased total P concentrations in all systems excluding hypertrophic lakes. Picophytoplankton contribution to total chlorophyll a content was significantly higher in oligo‐ and mesotrophic lakes than in eu‐ and hypertrophic lakes and was inversely correlated with total P concentrations in lake water. Picophytoplankton contribution to the total phytoplankton biomass was positively (r = 0.54, n = 42, P = 0.0003) correlated with the total N: total P ratio of lake waters. Each lake trophic type, with the exception of hypertrophic lakes, showed this trend, although the correlation was not significant. We suggest that picophytoplankton contribution is influenced by the total N: total P ratio rather than lake trophic state; however, picophytoplankton were of little importance in hypertrophic lakes.

Unravelling and forecasting algal population dynamics in two lakes different in morphometry and eutrophication by neural and evolutionary computation

Abstract Precious ecological information extracted from limnological long-term time series advances the theory on functioning and evolution of freshwater ecosystems. This paper presents results of applications of artificial neural networks (ANN) and evolutionary algorithms (EA) for ordination, clustering, forecasting and rule discovery of complex limnological time-series data of two distinctively different lakes. Ten years of data of the shallow and hypertrophic Lake Kasumigaura (Japan) are utilized in comparison with 13 years of data of the deep and mesotrophic Lake Soyang (Korea). Results demonstrate the potential that: (1) recurrent supervised ANN and EA facilitate 1-week-ahead forecasting of outbreaks of harmful algae or water quality changes, (2) EA discover explanatory rule sets for timing and abundance of harmful outbreaks algal populations, and (3) non-supervised ANN provide clusters to unravel ecological relationships regarding seasons, water quality ranges and long-term environmental changes.

Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithm for Rule Set Discovery in Time-Series Data to Forecast and Explain Algal Population Dynamics in Two Lakes Different in Morphometry and Eutrophication

A hybrid evolutionary algorithm (HEA) has been developed to discover predictive rule sets in complex ecological data. It has been designed to evolve the structure of rule sets by using genetic programming and to optimise the random parameters in the rule sets by means of a genetic algorithm.

Diurnal changes in the vertical distribution of phytoplankton in hypertrophic Lake Kasumigaura, Japan

The daily vertical migration of five species;Microcystis aeruginosa (Kütz.) Trevis,Anabaena spiroides Klebahn f.crassa (L.) Elenkin,Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (L.) Ralfs,Melosira granulata (E). Ralfs, andCoscinodiscus lacustris Grun. was studied using a close-interval water sampler on a calm summer day in Lake Kasumigaura. Many colonies ofMicrocystis were observed at the middle of the water column (approx. 1.5 m depth) in the afternoon, and at the surface in the early morning.Anabaena occurred mostly in the upper layer whileAphanizomenon tended to be uniformly distributed. The difference in migration patterns suggests thatMicrocystis is superior toAnabaena andAphanizomenon in obtaining both light and nutrients from this lake. Among diatoms,Melosira remained at the bottom of the water column throughout day and night, but Coscinodiscus was uniformly distributed.

Unique response of Cyanophyceae to copper

A study was made of the tolerance to Cu of 11 strains of Cyanophyceae and 7 strains of eukaryotes. These had all been tested within 6 months after isolation for their photosynthetic activity when exposed to Cu (Takamuraet al., 1989) and had repeatedly been subcultured in the medium without Cu for 2 years. Photosynthetic measurements were made in two ways: precultured in medium without Cu or precultured (for one subculture) in medium containing Cu (645 μg 1−1). The results were compared with those obtained within 6 months of isolation. The tolerance of the eukaryotes did not change significantly in any case, but most strains of Cyanophyceae lost their tolerance to Cu within a few subcultures in medium without Cu; however tolerance recovered following one subculture in medium containing an intermediate level of Cu. This rapid adaptation cannot be explained by a constitutive mutation.

Colony Formation in Planktonic Algae Induced by Zooplankton Culture Media Filtrate

ABSTRACT Grazer induced colony formation was examined using the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa Kützing and the green alga Scenedesrnus dimorphus (Türpin) Kützing. Algae were cultured in a medium with or without filtered water taken from cultures ofDaphnia magna Straus or Moina rnacrocopa Straus. Exposure to the zooplankton culture media filtrate (ZCMF) promoted colony formation in both S. dirnorphus and M. aeruginosa, with the magnitude of this response being directly proportional to the relative volume of ZCMF that was added to the culture medium. However, the degree of colony formation of M. aeruginosa was weakly influenced by ZCMF by comparison to that for S. dirnorphus. The mean number of cells per colony and mean particle biovolume of the two algal species increased significantly from 8 hr to 72 hr for the D. magna-CMF treatment and the M. macrocopa-CMF treatment (p < 0.001), most likely due to the influence of chemicals released from D. magna or M. rnacrocopa. Such info-chemicals could act as signals on trigger to induce colony development.