0000000000634476

AUTHOR

Rene Freiberg

Role of potentially toxic cyanobacteria in crustacean zooplankton diet in a eutrophic lake

The coexistence of potentially toxic bloom-forming cyanobacteria (CY) and generally smaller-sized grazer communities has raised the question of zooplankton (ZP) ability to control harmful cyanobacterial blooms and highlighted the need for species-specific research on ZP-CY trophic interactions in naturally occurring communities. A combination of HPLC, molecular and stable isotope analyses was used to assess in situ the importance of CY as a food source for dominant crustacean ZP species and to quantify the grazing on potentially toxic strains of Microcystis during bloom formation in large eutrophic Lake Peipsi (Estonia). Aphanizomenon, Dolichospermum, Gloeotrichia and Microcystis dominated …

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Towards understanding the abundance of non-pollen palynomorphs : A comparison of fossil algae, algal pigments and sedaDNA from temperate lake sediments

Given the increased interest in non-pollen palynomorphs (microscopic objects other than pollen identified from pollen slides) in palaeoecological studies, it is necessary to seek a deeper understanding of the reliability of these results. We combined quantitative information of algal pigments and sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) of phylotaxonomical resolution to validate the richness and abundance of fossil algae in the sediment of a small temperate lake. For the first time, fossil and sedaDNA algae data were combined in a composite data-set and used to reconstruct algae turnover rates over the last 14,500 years. This comparison serves as both an example of howfossil algae can be used to a…

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Environmental drivers and abrupt changes of phytoplankton community in temperate lake Lielais Svētiņu, Eastern Latvia, over the last Post-Glacial period from 14.5 kyr

Understanding the long-term dynamics of ecological communities on the centuries-to-millennia scale is important for explaining the emergence of present-day biodiversity patterns and for predicting possible future scenarios. Fossil pigments and ancient DNA present in various sedimentary deposits can be analysed to study long-term changes in ecological communities. We analysed recent compilations of data, including fossil pigments, microfossils, and molecular inventories from the sedimentary archives, to understand the impact of gradual versus abrupt climate changes on the ecosystem status of a regional model lake over the last ~14.5 kyr. Such long and complete paleo-archives are scarce in No…

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Drivers of change and ecosystem status in a temperate lake over the last Post-Glacial period from 14.5 kyr

AbstractUnderstanding the long-term dynamics of ecological communities on the centuries-to-millennia scale is important for explaining present-day biodiversity patterns. Placing these patterns in a historical context could yield reliable tools for predicting possible future scenarios. Paleoarchives of macro+ and micro-fossil remains, and most importantly biomarkers such as fossil pigments and ancient DNA present in various sedimentary deposits, allow long term changes in ecological communities to be analysed. We use recent compilations of data including fossil pigments, metabarcoding of sedimentary ancient DNA and microfossils together with data analysis to understand the impact of gradual …

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