From historical backgrounds towards the functional classification of river phytoplankton sensu Colin S. Reynolds: what future merits the approach may hold?

peer reviewedRiver phytoplankton has been studied to understand its occurrence and composition since the end of the nineteenth century. Later, pioneers addressed mechanisms that affected river phytoplankton by ‘‘origin of plankton’’, ‘‘turbulent mixing’’, ‘‘flow heterogeneity’’, ‘‘paradox of potamoplankton maintenance’’ and ‘‘dead zones’’ as keywords along the twentieth century. A major shift came with the recognition that characteristic units in phytoplankton compositions could be linked to specific set of environmental conditions, known as the ‘‘Phytoplankton Functional Group concept’’ sensu Reynolds. The FG concept could successfully be applied to river phytoplankton due to its close resemblance to shallow lakes phytoplankton. The FG approach enables one to separate the effects of ‘‘natural constraints’’ and ‘‘human impacts’’ on river phytoplankton and to evaluate the ecological status of rivers. The FG classification has mainly been advocated in the context of how the environment shaped the functional composition of phytoplankton. It may be further developed in the future by a trait-based mechanistic classification of taxa into FGs, and by the exact quantification of FGs on ecosystem functioning. These improvements will help quantify how global warming and human impacts affect river phytoplankton and corresponding alterations in ecosystem functioning

Intercalibration of the national classifications of ecological status for Eastern Continental lakes: Biological Quality Element: Phytoplankton

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires the national classifications of good ecological status to be harmonised through an intercalibration exercise. In this exercise, significant differences in status classification among Member States are harmonized by comparing and, if necessary, adjusting the good status boundaries of the national assessment methods. Intercalibration is performed for rivers, lakes, coastal and transitional waters, focusing on selected types of water bodies (intercalibration types), anthropogenic pressures and Biological Quality Elements. Intercalibration exercises were carried out in Geographical Intercalibration Groups - larger geographical units including Member States with similar water body types - and followed the procedure described in the WFD Common Implementation Strategy Guidance document on the intercalibration process (European Commission, 2011). The Technical reports are organized in volumes according to the water category (rivers, lakes, coastal and transitional waters), Biological Quality Element and Geographical Intercalibration group. This volume addresses the intercalibration of the Eastern Continental Lake GIG Phytoplankton ecological assessment methods. Three countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania) participated in the intercalibration exercise and harmonised their phytoplankton assessment systems. The results were approved by the WG ECOSTAT and included in the EC Decision on intercalibration (European Commission, 2018).JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Resisting annihilation: relationships between functional trait dissimilarity, assemblage competitive power and allelopathy

Abstract Allelopathic species can alter biodiversity. Using simulated assemblages that are characterised by neutrality, lumpy coexistence and intransitivity, we explore relationships between within-assemblage competitive dissimilarities and resistance to allelopathic species. An emergent behaviour from our models is that assemblages are more resistant to allelopathy when members strongly compete exploitatively (high competitive power). We found that neutral assemblages were the most vulnerable to allelopathic species, followed by lumpy and then by intransitive assemblages. We find support for our modeling in real-world time-series data from eight lakes of varied morphometry and trophic state. Our analysis of this data shows that a lake's history of allelopathic phytoplankton species biovolume density and dominance is related to the number of species clusters occurring in the plankton assemblages of those lakes, an emergent trend similar to that of our modeling. We suggest that an assemblage's competitive power determines its allelopathy resistance

Autumn drought drives functional diversity of benthic diatom assemblages of continental intermittent streams

International audienceClimate change is predicted to increase drought occurrence and severity in small continental watercourses. Here, we studied the structure and the functional diversity of benthic diatom assemblages in lowland intermittent and permanent watercourses of the Carpathian Basin. We assumed that the community structure of intermittent and permanent watercourses would be markedly different, and the functional diversity in both would be strongly influenced by autumn drought. We found that intermittent streams were primarily characterized by small-sized generalists and aerophilic taxa, while permanent watercourses were inhabited by large-sized planktic or fast moving groups. The functional richness was significantly lower in intermittent than in permanent streams. This decrease in the functional richness of benthic algal communities may negatively affect the functioning of lotic algal communities. We conclude that diatom assemblages in lowland intermittent watercourses are sensitive indicators of changes in ecosystem properties, and should be considered in appropriate evaluation and management of extreme climatic events on aquatic ecosystems

Intercalibrating the national classifications of ecological status for very large rivers in Europe: Biological Quality Element: Phytoplankton

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires the national classifications of good ecological status to be harmonised through an intercalibration exercise. In this exercise, significant differences in status classification among Member States are harmonized by comparing and, if necessary, adjusting the good status boundaries of the national assessment methods. Intercalibration is performed for rivers, lakes, coastal and transitional waters, focusing on selected types of water bodies (intercalibration types), anthropogenic pressures and Biological Quality Elements. Intercalibration exercises were carried out in Geographical Intercalibration Groups - larger geographical units including Member States with similar water body types - and followed the procedure described in the WFD Common Implementation Strategy Guidance document on the intercalibration process (European Commission, 2011). The Technical reports are organized in volumes according to the water category (rivers, lakes, coastal and transitional waters), Biological Quality Element and Geographical Intercalibration group. This volume addresses the intercalibration of the Very large river Phytoplankton ecological assessment methods. Thirteen countries (Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia) participated in the intercalibration exercise and harmonised their benthic invertebrate assessment systems. The results were approved by the WG ECOSTAT and included in the EC Decision on intercalibration (European Commission, 2018). In addition, four countries (Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden) provided justification for excluding Phytoplankton BQE assessment system.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Protecting and restoring Europe's waters:an analysis of the future development needs of the Water Framework Directive

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is a pioneering piece of legislation that aims to protect and enhance aquatic ecosystems and promote sustainable water use across Europe. There is growing concern that the objective of good status, or higher, in all EU waters by 2027 is a long way from being achieved in many countries. Through questionnaire analysis of almost 100 experts, we provide recommendations to enhance WFD monitoring and assessment systems, improve programmes of measures and further integrate with other sectoral policies. Our analysis highlights that there is great potential to enhance assessment schemes through strategic design of monitoring networks and innovation, such as earth observation. New diagnostic tools that use existing WFD monitoring data, but incorporate novel statistical and trait-based approaches could be used more widely to diagnose the cause of deterioration under conditions of multiple pressures and deliver a hierarchy of solutions for more evidence-driven decisions in river basin management. There is also a growing recognition that measures undertaken in river basin management should deliver multiple benefits across sectors, such as reduced flood risk, and there needs to be robust demonstration studies that evaluate these. Continued efforts in ‘mainstreaming’ water policy into other policy sectors is clearly needed to deliver wider success with WFD goals, particularly with agricultural policy. Other key policy areas where a need for stronger integration with water policy was recognised included urban planning (waste water treatment), flooding, climate and energy (hydropower). Having a deadline for attaining the policy objective of good status is important, but even more essential is to have a permanent framework for river basin management that addresses the delays in implementation of measures. This requires a long-term perspective, far beyond the current deadline of 2027

Ecological impacts of filter-feeding Asian carps (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) in Lake Balaton, Hungary

Bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver carp (H. molitrix) and their hybrids (collectively referred as Asian carps−AC) are primarily planktivorous cyprinid fishes that have been introduced into more than 30 countries around the world, including Hungary. However, recent studies demonstrated that AC can adversely affect the water quality and native fish populations. In this study, we report on the rate of hybridization, growth parameters and feeding habits of AC, to assess their ecological impacts and life history traits in the oligo-mesotrophic Lake Balaton. We found that the majority of the investigated AC (n=116) were hybrids. In general, hybrid AC with silver carp characteristics dominated the stock (90%), but 10% of individuals exhibited bighead carp phenotype and the proportion of bighead carp genes exceeded 98% in 4 individuals. However, the variance in phenotypes and the rate of hybridization did not influence significantly the feeding habits. Rather, the food composition was determined by the availability of different food resources and the concentration of suspended inorganic particles in the ambient water. Stable isotope analyses and microscopic analyses of gut contents revealed that the vast majority (>99%) of the ingested and metabolised food was zooplankton (mainly Rotifers, Cladocerans and Copepods). Despite the low proportions of algae in the food, we identified 155 phytoplankton taxa in the foregut-contents, among which there were several species (e.g., Scenedesmus spp. and Microcystis spp.) that survived the passage through the guts. Growth rates of AC were intermediate in Lake Balaton, while their condition factors were relatively high compared with other ecosystems. The relatively high condition factors were particularly interesting in the light of the high inorganic matter content of ingested food (43±9% in dry mass). We conclude that the presence of AC is an ecological threat to Lake Balaton, because AC can be important resource competitors of native planktivores

Data from: Resisting annihilation: relationships between functional trait dissimilarity, assemblage competitive power and allelopathy

Allelopathic species can alter biodiversity. Using simulated assemblages that are characterised by neutrality, lumpy coexistence and intransitivity, we explore relationships between within-assemblage competitive dissimilarities and resistance to allelopathic species. An emergent behaviour from our models is that assemblages are more resistant to allelopathy when members strongly compete exploitatively (high competitive power). We found that neutral assemblages were the most vulnerable to allelopathic species, followed by lumpy and then by intransitive assemblages. We find support for our modeling in real-world time-series data from eight lakes of varied morphometry and trophic state. Our analysis of this data shows that a lake’s history of allelopathic phytoplankton species biovolume density and dominance is related to the number of species clusters occurring in the plankton assemblages of those lakes, an emergent trend similar to that of our modeling. We suggest that an assemblage’s competitive power determines its allelopathy resistanc

Assemblage_HAB_resistance_func

This is the function called by the main program

for Dryad - Lake Volvi

This is the time-series phytoplankton data for Lake Volvi, Greec