0000000000485194
AUTHOR
Manuel Toro
Plankton assembly in an ultra-oligotrophic Antarctic lake over the summer transition from the ice-cover to ice-free period: A size spectra approach
Abstract Lakes from the Antarctic maritime region experience climate change as a main stressor capable of modifying their plankton community structure and function, essentially because summer temperatures are commonly over the freezing point and the lake's ice cap thaws. This study was conducted in such seasonally ice-covered lake (Lake Limnopolar, Byers Peninsula, Livingston Is., Antarctica), which exhibits a microbial dominated pelagic food web. An important feature is also the occurrence of benthic mosses ( Drepanocladus longifolius ) covering the lake bottom. Plankton dynamics were investigated during the ice-thawing transition to the summer maximum. Both bacterioplankton and viral-like…
Stability and endemicity of benthic diatom assemblages from different substrates in a maritime stream on Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island, Antarctica: the role of climate variability
16 páginas, 3 tablas, 9 figuras.
Structure of planktonic microbial communities along a trophic gradient in lakes of Byers Peninsula, South Shetland Islands
AbstractA systematic limnological survey of water bodies of Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands) was carried out during the summer of 2001/02. Abundances of microbial plankton were determined which allowed a delineation of the pelagic food web structure. We also report the nutrient status of these lakes. We demonstrate the occurrence of a trophic gradient that extended from upland lakes (oligotrophic) to the coastal ones (eutrophic). The study shows that a lake's morphology regulates the relative importance of the pelagic and benthic habitats, whereas nutrient loads mainly determine its trophic status. Yet, some of the variability observed could be also a legacy of th…
Maritime antarctic lakes as sentinels of climate change
Remote lakes, such as lakes from the Maritime Antarctica, can be used as sentinels of climate change, because they are mostly free of direct anthropogenic pressures, and they experience climate change as a main stressor capable of modifying the ecosystem structure and function. In this paper, the content of a lecture that has been presented at the First Conference of Lake Sustainability, which has been centred in our studies on lakes from Byers Peninsula (Maritime Antarctica), are summarized. These included physical, chemical and biological studies of these lakes and other freshwater ecosystems, which highlighted the relevance of biotic interactions for these ecosystems and its sensibility …