Movement of plankton through lake‐stream systems

Abstract

Summary1. River plankton are often assumed to come from upstream lakes, but the factors controlling the movement of plankton between lakes and rivers into outflow streams are unclear. We tested the possibility that the physical structure of the littoral zone near the lake outlet (depth, presence of macrophytes) and diurnal differences in plankton composition at the lake surface influence the movement of plankton from the lake into the stream and determine their persistence downstream.2. Zooplankton and phytoplankton biomass, community composition and mean body size were compared between two deep lakes without macrophytes at the lake edge and two shallow lakes with macrophytes at the lake edge. Samples were collected day and night on three dates, in the lake centre, in the littoral zone adjacent to the lake outlet, at the outlet and at two sites downstream in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada.3. The morphology of lake edges clearly affects the movement of lake zooplankton into outlet streams. Outlets draining deeper littoral zones had higher zooplankton biomass than shallow littoral outlets (P < 0.0001), but these differences disappeared within 50 m downstream of the lake. There was no difference in mean zooplankton body size among lake outlets or between littoral and outlet samples. However, shallow littoral zones were dominated by cyclopoid copepods and deeper littoral zones were dominated by Bosmina longirostris. In contrast, phytoplankton biomass entering the outlet was similar to that found within the lake and did not vary with lake outlet morphology. These effects were consistent across several sampling weeks and were not affected by surface zooplankton biomass changes associated with diurnal vertical migration in the lake centre.4. A comparison with published river zooplankton data suggests that zooplankton are rapidly eliminated from shallow outlet streams (≤1 m deep) but persist in most deeper outlet rivers (≥2 m deep). Because the depth of an outlet river determines downstream zooplankton community development, the contribution of lakes to river plankton communities may be influenced by the location of each lake within the drainage basin. These findings suggest that lake and outflow physical structure influences connection strength between spatially successive habitats.