Article (Scientific journals)
Grazing by large river zooplankton: a key to summer potamoplankton decline? The case of the Meuse and Moselle rivers in 1994 and 1995
Gosselain, Véronique; Descy, Jean-Pierre; Viroux, Laurent et al.
1998In Hydrobiologia
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
 

Files


Full Text
H369.pdf
Publisher postprint (604.53 kB)
Download

All documents in ORBi are protected by a user license.

Send to



Details



Abstract :
[en] To explain summer declines in phytoplankton biomass in large rivers, we compared the effect of zooplankton grazing on the planktonic algae of two large European rivers, the Meuse and the Moselle. In situ grazing was measured during two years (1994 and 1995), using the Haney method. Total zooplankton community filtration rates recorded in the river Meuse ranged between 1 and 32% of the water volume filtered per day. A drastic algal decline was observed early July both years and may be explained by high densities of a rotiferdominated zooplankton community (500–700 ind. l􀀀1) with more than 75%of Brachionus calyciflorus. During the summer period in 1994, when grazingwas over 20%, edible algal biomasswas controlled by a diversified rotifer community (up to 2500 ind.l􀀀1), while a nonedible algal assemblage developed. In contrast, phytoplankton biomass remained comparatively lowin the Moselle throughout the lowflowperiod, as did zooplankton numbers duringmost of this time (fewer than 200 ind. l􀀀1 during the summer period). The proportion of crustaceans in this zooplanktonwas rather higher than in the Meuse, and they dominated at times, in biomass as well as in numbers. Nevertheless, measured in situ grazing rates (1–15%) could not explain the low summer algal biomass, even if low filtration rates may at times represent a significant carbon loss for phytoplankton, when and where net algal production was low. As a conclusion, the role of phytoplankton – zooplankton interactions in controlling algal biomass in large rivers is discussed.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Gosselain, Véronique
Descy, Jean-Pierre 
Viroux, Laurent
Joaquim-Justo, Célia ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Ecologie animale et écotoxicologie
Hammer, Astrid
Métens, Arnaud
Schweitzer, Sabine
Language :
English
Title :
Grazing by large river zooplankton: a key to summer potamoplankton decline? The case of the Meuse and Moselle rivers in 1994 and 1995
Publication date :
1998
Journal title :
Hydrobiologia
ISSN :
0018-8158
eISSN :
1573-5117
Publisher :
Springer Science & Business Media B.V.
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 16 October 2012

Statistics


Number of views
78 (1 by ULiège)
Number of downloads
175 (1 by ULiège)

Scopus citations®
 
43
Scopus citations®
without self-citations
37
OpenCitations
 
0

Bibliography


Similar publications



Contact ORBi