Lake Taihu is not like a lake but a river
Ann Arbor, MI — The relationship between production and plankton community respiration in Lake Taihu, China, is more similar to that found in rivers than in lakes.
There are no other studies on the plankton community metabolism in this eutrophic Lake, which is famous for blue-green algae blooms. Students and scientists from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Austrian Academy of Sciences made monthly measurements of gross primary production and plankton community respiration rates in Lake Taihu and then examined the carbon dioxide balance in its water.
"The finding that the plankton community acts as net consumers in eutrophic Lake Taihu was surprising" Mr. Chen said. "We discovered that conditions here may be related to high suspended solids concentrations, abundant nutrients and high water temperature". "High suspended solids and nutrient concentrations limit underwater light and are bad for phytoplankton photosynthesis while high water temperatures are good for the plankton respiration", says Dr. Dokulil.
In the past, studies suggest that oligotrophic lakes are net consumers and act as net sources of carbon dioxide, whereas eutrophic lakes are net producers and act as carbon dioxide sinks. However, the conditions in Lake Taihu suggest that assumption of does not always hold true.
Original Publication Information
Results of this study, "Imbalance of plankton community metabolism in eutrophic Lake Taihu, China," are reported by Xia Liu, Qinglong Wu, Yuwei Chen and Martin T. Dokulil in the Volume 37, No. 4, of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by Elsevier, 2011.
Contacts
For more information about the study, contact Yuwei Chen, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; ywchen@niglas.ac.cn, +86-13951695436.
For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; jglr@ec.gc.ca; (306) 975-5310.
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