Roney, Hillary C.

English

DigitalCommons@USU

Natural Resources and Environmental Issues Volume 15 Saline Lakes Around the World: Unique Systems with Unique Values Article 8 2009 Competitive exclusion of cyanobacterial species in Great Salt Lake Hillary C. Roney Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/nrei Recommended Citation Roney, Hillary C. (2009) "Competitive exclusion of cyanobacterial species in Great Salt Lake," Natural Resources and Environmental Issues: Vol. 15 , Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/nrei/vol15/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resources and Environmental Issues by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@usu.edu. Competitive Exclusion of Cyanobacterial Species in Great Salt Lake Hillary C. Roney1 1Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo Utah 84602, USA; E-mail: hillaryroney@gmail.com     The division of the waters of Great Salt Lake by a rail and vehicular causeway into different regions of salinity and color variation represents a natural experiment that permits examination of competitive exclusion of cyanobacteria. Cyanobacterial distributions partially follow the salinity, with Aphanothece halophytica proliferating in the North Arm and Nodularia spumigena being prominent in the South Arm. I hypothesized that cyanobacterial species abundant north of the railway causeway are competitively excluded from the south by other species, and that cyanobacterial species that thrive and bloom south of the Antelope Island causeway cannot grow in the high salinity of the north. To test this hypothesis, 129 flasks of autoclaved water from the north and south sides of each causeway were inoculated with Great Salt Lake water samples from the north and south sides of the causeway.   Four genera of cyanobacteria, Aphanothece, Oscillatoria, Phormidium, and Nodularia were identified and counted from the culture flasks using comparative differential interference contrast, fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy. The relative abundance of cyanobacterial species was determined and differences were tested for statistical significance. Aphanothece halophytica was found in all inocula, but its growth was suppressed in the presence of Nodularia spumigena, while N. spumigena was found only in inocula from the less saline waters in the south, and apparently cannot survive in the extremely saline waters of the north.   These analyses suggest that both abiotic and biotic factors influence the distribution of cyanobacteria in Great Salt Lake. Nodularia is excluded from the north by high salinity, but Aphanothece is outcompeted in the south by Nodularia.  Map of the Great Salt Lake, Utah, showing predominant features. Created December 2008  by Justin Morris & Greg Fryer using ArcGIS.    521Roney: Competitive exclusion of cyanobacterial in Great Salt LakePublished by DigitalCommons@USU, 2009

Competitive exclusion of cyanobacterial species in Great Salt Lake

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1304&context=nrei

Competitive exclusion of cyanobacterial species in Great Salt Lake

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

DigitalCommons@USU