Temperature and Resource Availability May Interactively Affect Over-Wintering Success of Juvenile Fish in a Changing Climate

The predicted global warming may affect freshwater systems at several organizational levels, from organism to ecosystem. Specifically, in temperate regions, the projected increase of winter temperatures may have important effects on the over-winter biology of a range of organisms and especially for fish and other ectothermic animals. However, temperature effects on organisms may be directed strongly by resource availability. Here, we investigated whether over-winter loss of biomass and lipid content of juvenile roach (Rutilus rutilus) was affected by the physiologically relatively small (2-5°C) changes of winter temperatures predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under both natural and experimental conditions. This was investigated in combination with the effects of food availability. Finally, we explored the potential for a correlation between lake temperature and resource levels for planktivorous fish, i.e., zooplankton biomass, during five consecutive winters in a south Swedish lake. We show that small increases in temperature (+2°C) affected fish biomass loss in both presence and absence of food, but negatively and positively respectively. Temperature alone explained only a minor part of the variation when food availability was not taken into account. In contrast to other studies, lipid analyses of experimental fish suggest that critical somatic condition rather than critical lipid content determined starvation induced mortality. Our results illustrate the importance of considering not only changes in temperature when predicting organism response to climate change but also food-web interactions, such as resource availability and predation. However, as exemplified by our finding that zooplankton over-winter biomass in the lake was not related to over-winter temperature, this may not be a straightforward task

Estimating population birth rates of zooplankton when rates of egg deposition and hatching are periodic

I present a general method of computing finite birth and death rates of natural zooplankton populations from changes in the age distribution of eggs and changes in population size. The method is applicable to cases in which eggs hatch periodically owing to variable rates of oviposition. When morphological criteria are used to determine the age distribution of eggs at the beginning and end of a sampling interval, egg mortality can be incorporated in estimates of population birth rate. I raised laboratory populations of Asplanchna priodonta , a common planktonic rotifer, in semicontinuous culture to evaluate my method of computing finite birth rate. The Asplanchna population became synchronized to a daily addition of food but grew by the same amount each day once steady state was achieved. The steady-state rate of growth, which can be computed from the volume-specific dilution rate of the culture, was consistent with the finite birth rate predicted from the population's egg ratio and egg age distribution.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47764/1/442_2004_Article_BF00410359.pd

Sulphuric acid geofluid contribution on thermal carbonate coastal springs (Italy)

Hypogenic caves, developed by sulphuric acid speleogenesis, are known all over the world among which the Santa Cesarea Terme caves have been included. They are four submerged caves, located along a coastal carbonate sector in Southern Italy and hosting the outflow of coastal springs of thermal mixed waters (from 21 to 33 °C). These waters derive from the mixing of three water end members: the fresh pure groundwater of a wide karstic aquifer, the deep sulphur thermal water and the seawater. This cave system represents an almost unique case of hypogenic sea caves in carbonate environment. The thermal mixed waters have a different effect on the surrounding rocks of the caves, influencing the sulphuric acid speleogenetic process within the whole cave system. To understand the complex and overlapping natural processes acting on the development of these coastal caves, a multidisciplinary study has been carried out. This study has integrated all the data resulting from different methods and technologies, merging morphology, structural geology, hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry and mineralogy. This multidisciplinary study has allowed to define the main geochemical processes acting within these caves, including the cave development and the formation of the mineral concretions. After the introduction of H2S in the thermal waters, formed by the reduction of sulphates in the sedimentary deposits crossed at depth in the offshore, the oxidation occurs within the caves, producing sulphuric acid. Favoured by upwelling deep-seated thermal flows, this acid dissolves the limestone, with condensation corrosion process that involve replacement of limestone rock with gypsum. This process has resulted to be more active and remarkable within the Gattulla Cave, one of the Santa Cesarea Terme sea caves