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

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

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