Regional ecosystem variability drives the relative importance of bottom-up and top-down factors for zooplankton size spectra

Abstract

The relative effects of top-down and bottom-up drivers of zooplankton size structure were examined in three limnologically diverse regions of Quebec, Canada. Lake productivity drove biomass of small-sized zooplankton (300–1000 µm) in the Eastern Townships and Laurentian regions, which have high total phosphorus gradients, but was not significant in the low-productivity region, Gouin. Fish species composition was found to affect biomass of large-sized (>1000 µm) zooplankton and was the primary factor affecting zooplankton size structure in the low productivity region. When size structure of the zooplankton communities were described as normalized biomass size spectra, only bottom-up factors were significant, as increasing productivity resulted in higher curve peaks and increased parabola curvature. No factors were significantly related to any parameter of the Pareto distribution to describe size spectra. Overall, bottom-up forces were stronger drivers of zooplankton size structure, particularly in regions with wide ranges in lake trophy, while fish predation was more important in regions with low productivity variability.