Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.5
3.4
Journals
Water
Special Issues
Climate Change and Plankton Dynamics in Freshwater: Current Trends and...
share announcement

Climate Change and Plankton Dynamics in Freshwater: Current Trends and Future Perspectives

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 8396

Special Issue Editor

Dr. John R. Beaver

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
BSA Environmental Services, Inc. Beachwood, OH, USA.
Interests: aquatic food webs; climate change; environmental monitoring; eutrophication; harmful algal blooms; invasive species; large-scale ecology; limnology; phytoplankton; zooplankton

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Phytoplankton and zooplankton constitute the base of pelagic food webs. Compared to larger species, planktonic organisms exhibit relatively fast growth rates and sensitivity to small shifts in environmental conditions. Both species-level responses and functional traits of plankton communities have been employed as effective bioindicators of changing water quality conditions. Climate change will impact plankton communities in vulnerable and economically critical freshwater systems worldwide, from polar regions to the equator. Altered hydrological properties of lotic and lentic systems will vary depending on latitude and physical habitat characteristics. Climate warming is predicted to result in increased productivity in many freshwater ecosystems due to extended growing seasons in temperate regions, increased water column stratification, and the mobilization of nutrient pools. Such changes may result in modifications to aquatic food web structure and phenology, including trophic interactions between phytoplankton, zooplankton, and planktivorous fish.

It is critically important to understand how plankton communities are impacted by water quality changes that accompany climate warming. Impacts to ecosystem services provided by plankton communities are of great interest to water resource managers attempting to mitigate some of the negative effects of climate change on freshwater ecosystems. Limited time remains to establish baseline ecological dynamics that can be compared to future climate scenarios, and a high degree of uncertainty exists surrounding the impacts of climate-induced change. This Special Issue invites contributions relating freshwater plankton communities to altered environmental conditions as the global climate warms. Potential research topics include brownification, hypoxia, harmful algal blooms, multiple stressors, loss of freshwater diversity, adaptation strategies, changing thermal regimes, hydrologic connectivity, linear vs. threshold responses, plankton community size–structure, ecological efficiency of food webs, invasive species, spatial/temporal analyses and distribution shifts.

Dr. John R. Beaver
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Climate warming
  • Phytoplankton
  • Zooplankton
  • Harmful algal blooms
  • Community dynamics
  • Ecosystem services
  • Bioindicators
  • Hydrology
  • Food webs
  • Water quality

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

13 pages, 2568 KiB  
Article
In Situ Monitoring of a Eutrophicated Pond Revealed Complex Dynamics of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Triggered by Decomposition of Floating-Leaved Macrophytes
by Cuiyu Yi, Jiafeng Li, Chenrong Zhang, Fan Pan and Changfang Zhou
Water 2021, 13(13), 1751; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13131751 - 24 Jun 2021
Viewed by 1919
Abstract
To explore the influence of the decomposition of aquatic macrophytes on water quality in eutrophicated aquatic ecosystems and the interacting environmental factors that trigger nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) dynamics, a suburban pond with floating-leaved macrophytes (Pond A) as well as another nearby [...] Read more.
To explore the influence of the decomposition of aquatic macrophytes on water quality in eutrophicated aquatic ecosystems and the interacting environmental factors that trigger nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) dynamics, a suburban pond with floating-leaved macrophytes (Pond A) as well as another nearby newly dug pond without any obvious aquatic macrophytes (Pond B) were studied. N and P levels together with a series of parameters relating to biomass, water and sediments were monitored during a period of 84 d that covered the entire decomposition process of plants. The results show that the decomposition of aquatic macrophytes can be divided into two phases, with the first phase having a faster decomposition rate and the second phase, a slower one. With the decomposition of biomass, the dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), and pondus hydrogenii (pH) of the water body increased, whereas the permanganate index (CODMn) decreased. Significantly higher levels of total phosphorus in both water and sediment (TPW and TPS) were detected in Pond A with macrophytes; TPW increased quickly during the first phase of biomass decomposition but decreased in the second phase, and TPS remained relatively stable during the first phase but increased slowly in the second phase. Total nitrogen in both water and sediment (TNW and TNS) was also significantly higher in Pond A but remained relatively stable. A structural equation model revealed that the decomposition of aquatic macrophytes, could, directly and indirectly, influence N and P cycles in an aquatic ecosystem through the regulation of pH and DO. Our study indicate that the decomposition of biomass exerted a greater influence on P than on N. Besides the direct release of P from decaying biomass, which caused a significant increase of P in water body, changes of DO and ORP and the subsequent redox state of the whole system during the process also indirectly affected the deposition and dissolution of P between sediment and water. P was the decisive factor that caused endogenous eutrophication in ponds containing aquatic macrophytes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Plankton Dynamics in Freshwater: Current Trends and Future Perspectives)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 3080 KiB  
Article
A Morphological and Molecular Analysis of a Bloom of the Filamentous Green Alga Pithophora
by Blia Lor, Merry Zohn, Marcus J. Meade, A. Bruce Cahoon and Kalina M. Manoylov
Water 2021, 13(6), 760; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13060760 - 11 Mar 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5915
Abstract
Filamentous representatives of Cladophorales (Chlorophyta) are major contributors to algal biomass of littoral communities. In the present study, community analysis of a reported bloom in the Ogeechee River in Georgia provided an opportunity to combine morphological and genetic analyses with ecological information related [...] Read more.
Filamentous representatives of Cladophorales (Chlorophyta) are major contributors to algal biomass of littoral communities. In the present study, community analysis of a reported bloom in the Ogeechee River in Georgia provided an opportunity to combine morphological and genetic analyses with ecological information related to an understudied nuisance alga. A polyphasic approach of incorporating genotypic and phenotypic methods led to the identification of the algal community as Pithophora roettleri (Roth) Wittrock. Morphological analysis showed a monospecific community based on the average length and diameter of the heterosporous intercalary and terminal akinetes, along with the diameter of the principal filaments. Single-gene and concatenated-gene phylogenetic analyses of the LSU (28S rRNA) and SSU (18S rRNA) markers further confirmed this species identification. In this study, we conducted a morphological treatment of P. roettleri, produced 17 novel gene sequences, and produced a new, schematic diagram illustrating the four steps of the asexual reproduction of an intercalary akinete. Morphological characteristics, like the position and shape of akinetes documented here, and the availability of genetic sequences can improve identification and further ecological understanding of filamentous green algae. Flowing mats of P. roettleri, like those observed in this study, can lower light availability for other biota and structurally alter the habitat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Plankton Dynamics in Freshwater: Current Trends and Future Perspectives)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop