Interspecific variation in pigmentation: implications for production estimates for shallow eutrophic lakes using an incubator

Abstract

In shallow, eutrophic Lake Loosdrecht, light attenuation and spectral changes with depth are pronounced due to high concentration of algae and tripton. Calculations of integrated daily primary production have been based on the photosynthesis-irradiance relationship (P/E-curve) obtained with the incubator technique. The suitability of this technique for estimating primary production in such a turbid lake was investigated by comparing P/E-curves for two differently pigmented algae, Oscillatoria limnetica and Prochlorothrix hollandica, in two laboratory systems differing in light regime. System (1) consisted of an incubator filled with tapwater, and system (2) was an algal culture in a laboratory scale enclosure (LSE). For O. limnetica the P/E-curves were identical. The P/E-curves for P. hollandica diverged considerably: the photosynthetic efficiency in the LSE (0.19 mg O2 (mg Chl)−1 h−1 (W m−2)−1 was about half of that obtained in the incubator (0.35 mg O2 (mg Chl)−1 h−1 (W m−2)−1. These results were explained by the interspecific variation in pigmentation. The photosynthetic efficiency of P. hollandica changed due to the dependence on the chlorophyll specific absorption for the whole photosynthetic waveband on the spectral light distribution, which for O. limnetica was approximately the same in the two light regimes. Column-integrated primary production computed with the photosynthetic characteristics of P. hollandica obtained in LSE, was 10–30% lower than the production based on incubator data.