Plankton Group Report

1
Plankton Group Report
Becky Doyle-Morin (trying to get to Juniper)

• and Nelson Hairson
• (hard at work at Sterling)

2

• The following are some of the general questions
  were posing could be answered with
  collaborations with other folks on the
  projectthis is not meant to be an all-inclusive
  list and were open to other ideas!
• Specific examples will be given at the end, with
  DATA! So, stay tuned

3
Routine Sampling--Collaboration

• ChemistryDriscoll group
• Do we see relationship between nutrients coming
  into bays and algal?zoop productivity? What
  about nutrient levels in bays (how are plankton
  impacting the nutrient dynamics at that level)?
  Are nutrient levels good predictors for
  functional groups, like N-fixers? Are nutrient
  pulses driving plankton dynamics? Is chemistry a
  clear tie between watershed impact and plankton
  (ie agriculture vs forested landscapes).

4
Routine Sampling--Collaboration

• Wetland and Macrophyte BiologyLeopold and
  Johnson groups
• Do we see similar chemical influences on wetland
  plants and macrophytes as we see on bay
  vegetationie N-fixer abundances? OR, are
  wetland plants and macrophytes influencing the
  chemical environment the aquatic plants
  experience?
• Also, are we seeing alternate-state competition
  for light between macrophytes and phytoplankton?
• How do macrophytes drive fluid dynamics, and thus
  resources and habitat patch dynamics in plankton?

5
Routine SamplingCollaboration

• FishBain group
• Is there any indication of top-down control on
  the zooplankton? When looking at the
  r-selction hypothesis in relation to water
  retention time, were often considering
  smaller-sized organismsmight it just be that
  they are heavily preyed upon in the larger size
  classes? Are there data that would allow us to
  test the hypothesis that size-selective predation
  is more intense in some bays than others?

6
Routine SamplingCollaboration

• HydrodynamicsCowen group
• How important is the exchange with LO for each of
  these bays? What are the unique hydrologic
  conditions that each of these bays inhabitants
  has to deal with?
• How do the fluid dynamics patterns in Sterling
  impact patch dynamics of plankton? Are water
  and/or nutrients pooling in one area, leading to
  higher plankton productivity?

7
Routine SamplingCollaboration

• Watershed processesLoucks and Leopold groups
• What are the sources for water to the bays? We
  are currently only considering LO exchange and
  major tributaries, but water moving through the
  landscape (wetlands, soils, over bedrock, etc)
  could be picking up or losing nutrients essential
  to phyto growth or ions affecting buffering
  capacity

8
Routine SamplingCollaboration

• Human impactPendall group
• We are starting to get at the human impacts on
  the bays, but what about the reverse? There are
  larger organized groups on the bigger bays, but
  what about bays like Blind Sodus and South Sandy,
  which both have a good number of inhabitants and
  serious algal blooms?

9
Routine Sampling--Collaboration

• Modeling and statistical analysisEllner group
• We will do time series analyses, looking for the
  coupling (both negative and positive) between the
  phytoplankton and zooplankton, and then branching
  that out to determine the drivers (e.g.,
  nutrients, fish, etc).
• What do we expect to see in the data, on the
  basis of the water residence time gradient, and
  do our data match the model?
• Theory meets data!

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Examples and DATA!
11
Autumn nutrient pulse-driven plankton increase
followed by overturn?
Zooplankton-phytoplankton coupling?
Upwelling? Fish?
This plot is to give you a very general example
of how were looking at our weekly dynamics data
in each of the bays. Well first try to find
clear negative correlations between the phyto-
and zooplankton, and then well look for other
explanatory variables for their individual
dynamics.
12
This plot depicts relative average abundances.
Generally, Juniper and Blind Sodus are two of the
more productive bays in terms of plankton, while
Floodwood and Little Sodus are two of the
lowest. Do these patterns hold in others data?
If so, can they be tied to WRT, or to land use?
13
This plot shows percent total zooplankton biomass
that is comprised of high r (intrinsic growth
rate), or fast growing species, versus
slow-growing low r species. Are the small,
fast-growing ST, FL, and JU zooplankton
populations driven by high water flow, or high
fish predation?
14
This is a plot of two types of phytoplankton that
are fairly dependent on certain nutrient
conditions. Chrysophytes include the diatoms,
which have silica-rich outer frustules, and whose
abundance is thus driven by silica. The N-fixer
group includes many of the cyanobacteria species,
which thrive in nitrogen-poor conditions where
they outcompete other species. Is STs high
chrysophyte abundance driven by high silica
availability? Are the two Sandy Ponds
nitrogen-poor, and do we see evidence for this in
the chemistry and in other plant groups data?
Why no N-fixers in LS or FL?
15
This plot depicts zooplankton abundance at four
different sites in ST throughout the growing
season. Interesting to note--the four sites
follow the same general up-and-down dynamics, but
to much different extents. What drives the
differences in abundance (and biomass) at these
sites? Is this related to flow regime?
16
Lets collaborate!

• At least one replicate for each date in 2002 is
  counted and in usable data format. Replicates
  have generally been close, so we should be able
  to start running initial analyses/looking for
  patterns with these data, filling in with
  replicated samples as they are available for
  final analyses and publication.

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End Date

• Becky hopes to finish her thesis sometime around
  this time next year, give or take a few
  monthswith the exception of the modeling aspect
  of the project, we hope to have all
  collaborations done for the thesis.
• We plan to have the first major manuscripts from
  our part of this project submitted by this time
  next year. The upwelling paper will be finished
  sooner by the end of this summer?
• We plan to continue work on this project until
  every aspect of our research has found its way
  into either Science, Nature or Turtox News.