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Effects of water temperature on summer periphyton biomass in shallow lakes: a pan-European mesocosm experiment

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Abstract

Periphyton communities play an important role in shallow lakes and are controlled by direct forces such as temperature, light, nutrients, and invertebrate grazing, but also indirectly by planktivorous fish predation. We performed a pan-European lake mesocosm experiment on periphyton colonization covering five countries along a north/south geographical/temperature gradient (Estonia, Germany, Czech Republic, Turkey, and Greece). Periphyton biomass on artificial polypropylene strips exposed at 50 cm water depth at low and high nutrient regimes (with mean total phosphorus concentration of 20 and 65 µg L−1, respectively) was compared during mid-summer. No significant effect of nutrient loading on periphyton biomass was observed as nutrient concentrations in the mesocosms were generally above limiting values. Water temperature significantly enhanced summer periphyton biomass development. Additionally, direct and indirect top-down control of snails and fish emerged as a significant factor in periphyton biomass control.

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Acknowledgments

This project was primarily supported by the EU FP-7 Theme 6 project REFRESH (Adaptive strategies to Mitigate the Impacts of Climate Change on European Freshwater Ecosystems, Contract No.: 244121). EJ, MS, and FL were also supported by ‘CLEAR’ (a Villum Kann Rasmussen Centre of Excellence project), CRES, and CIRCE. In addition, JH and MS obtained support from the MSMT CR (project No. 425 7E11059) and NF was supported by TÜBİTAK 2211 Scholarship programme, and the study was partly supported by TÜBITAK (ÇAYDAĞ110Y125). AM was supported by a PhD426 stipend from the Egyptian Government. Support also came from the Estonian Ministry of Education (SF 0170011s08) and Estonian Science Foundation grants 8729 and 9102, and EP, KS, and CP were supported by grants from the University of Patras. We want to thank Arvo Tuvikene, Tõnu Feldmann, Helen Agasild, Anu Kisand, Katrit Karus, Şeyda Erdoğan, Tuba Bucak, Eti Levi, Gizem Bezirci, Arda Özen, Engin Bilgen, Tasos Samiotis, and Yannis Nikolopoulos for help with setting up the experiment, nursing the imported fish, and undertaking the regular sampling. The local fishermen in Lake Lysimachia are acknowledged for keeping the mesocosm construction safe. The Erken Field laboratory and the technicians of the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment (SLU) also provided invaluable help. The IGB provided additional funding for the experimental set-up. We thank the staff at IGB for their tremendous technical support during the set-up of the experiments, sampling, and sample processing; especially Thomas Hintze. We also thank Armaplast Co. for constructing the mesocosms and ensuring their safe transport to all the experimental sites. Anne Mette Poulsen’s linguistic improvements are acknowledged. The map of Europe in Fig. 1 was provided by Natural Earth and customized with QGIS 2.0.1-Dufour.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, IGB, Berlin, Germany

    Aldoushy Mahdy, Sabine Hilt, Deniz Özkundakci, Ulrike Scharfenberger & Rita Adrian

  2. Department of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Free University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Aldoushy Mahdy & Rita Adrian

  3. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University (Assiut Branch), Assiut, 71524, Egypt

    Aldoushy Mahdy

  4. Biological Sciences Department, Limnology Laboratory, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Nur Filiz & Meryem Beklioğlu

  5. Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Hydrobiology, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Josef Hejzlar & Michal Šorf

  6. Department of Biology, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Eva Papastergiadou & Kostas Stefanidis

  7. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Michal Šorf

  8. Centre for Limnology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 61117, Rannu, Tartu County, Estonia

    Lea Tuvikene & Priit Zingel

  9. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Vejlsøvej 25, 8600, Silkeborg, Denmark

    Martin Søndergaard & Erik Jeppesen

  10. Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research, Beijing, China

    Erik Jeppesen

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  1. Aldoushy Mahdy
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  2. Sabine Hilt
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  3. Nur Filiz
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Correspondence to Sabine Hilt.

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Mahdy, A., Hilt, S., Filiz, N. et al. Effects of water temperature on summer periphyton biomass in shallow lakes: a pan-European mesocosm experiment. Aquat Sci 77, 499–510 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-015-0394-7

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