Suchergebnisse

In many regions across the globe, extreme weather events such as storms have increased in frequency, intensity, and duration due to climate change. Ecological theory predicts that such extreme events should have large impacts on ecosystem structure and function. High winds and precipitation associated with storms can affect lakes via short-term runoff events from watersheds and physical mixing of the water column. In addition, lakes connected to rivers and streams will also experience flushing due to high flow rates. Although we have a well-developed understanding of how wind and precipitation events can alter lake physical processes and some aspects of biogeochemical cycling, our mechanistic understanding of the emergent responses of phytoplankton communities is poor. Here we provide a comprehensive synthesis that identifies how storms interact with lake and watershed attributes and their antecedent conditions to generate changes in lake physical and chemical environments. Such changes can restructure phytoplankton communities and their dynamics, as well as result in altered ecological function (e.g., carbon, nutrient and energy cycling) in the short- and long-term. We summarize the current understanding of storm-induced phytoplankton dynamics, identify knowledge gaps with a systematic review of the literature, and suggest future research directions across a gradient of lake types and environmental conditions. ; Main financial support for EMU: European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme Under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, Innovative Training Networks, European Joint Doctorates. ; Project name, acronym and grant number: Management of climatic extreme events in lakes and reservoirs for the protection of ecosystem services, MANTEL, grant agreement No 722518. ; Publication date and, if applicable, length of embargo period: 22.04.2020, no embargo period. ; Main financial support for EMU: European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme Under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, Innovative Training Networks, European Joint Doctorates

Winter conditions are rapidly changing in temperate ecosystems, particularly for those that experience periods of snow and ice cover. Relatively little is known of winter ecology in these systems, due to a historical research focus on summer 'growing seasons'. We executed the first global quantitative synthesis on under-ice lake ecology, including 36 abiotic and biotic variables from 42 research groups and 101 lakes, examining seasonal differences and connections as well as how seasonal differences vary with geophysical factors. Plankton were more abundant under ice than expected; mean winter values were 43.2% of summer values for chlorophyll a, 15.8% of summer phytoplankton biovolume and 25.3% of summer zooplankton density. Dissolved nitrogen concentrations were typically higher during winter, and these differences were exaggerated in smaller lakes. Lake size also influenced winter-summer patterns for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), with higher winter DOC in smaller lakes. At coarse levels of taxonomic aggregation, phytoplankton and zooplankton community composition showed few systematic differences between seasons, although literature suggests that seasonal differences are frequently lake-specific, species-specific, or occur at the level of functional group. Within the subset of lakes that had longer time series, winter influenced the subsequent summer for some nutrient variables and zooplankton biomass. ; National Science Foundation (NSF DEB) [1431428, 1136637]; Washington State University; Russian Science Foundation [14-14-00400]; Ministry of education and science of Russia Gos-Zasanie project [1354-2014/51]; Natural Environment Research Council [NE/J00829X/1, 1230750, NE/G019622/1, NE/J010227/1] ; Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF DEB #1431428; NSF DEB #1136637) and Washington State University. M. Timofeyev and E. Silow were partially supported by Russian Science Foundation project No 14-14-00400 and Ministry of education and science of Russia Gos-Zasanie project No 1354-2014/51. We are grateful to Marianne Moore, Deniz Ozkundakci, Chris Polashenski and Paula Kankaala for discussions that greatly improved this work. We also gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for contributing to this project: John Anderson, Jill Baron, Rick Bourbonniere, Sandra Brovold, Lluis Camarero, Sudeep Chandra, Jim Cotner, Laura Forsstom, Guillaume Grosbois, Chris Harrod, Klaus D. Joehnk, T.Y. Kim, Daniel Langenhaun, Reet Laugaste, Suzanne McGowan, Virginia Panizzo, Giampaolo Rossetti, R.E.H. Smith, Sarah Spaulding, Helen Tammert, Steve Thackeray, Kyle Zimmer, Priit Zingel and two anonymous reviewers. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.