P-load,phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish stock in Loosdrecht Lake and Tjeukemeer: confounding effects of predation and food availability

The fish community in the Loosdrecht lakes is dominated by bream, pikeperch and smelt and is characteristic of shallow eutrophic lakes in The Netherlands. The biomasses of the respective fish species amount to ca. 250, 25 and 10 kg ha^–1 and correspond to those in Tjeukemeer, another lake in The Netherlands. The average size of bream, however, is much smaller in the Loosdrecht lakes as a consequence of poorer feeding conditions. The zooplankton community in the Loosdrecht lakes is predominantly composed of relatively small species such as Daphnia cucullata, Bosmina coregoni and cyclopoid copepods, whereas in Tjeukemeer, Daphnia hyalina is permanently present in relatively high densities and the other species show a larger mean length. In the Loosdrecht lakes, the absence of D. hyalina and the smaller sizes of the other zooplankton species could be the consequence of a higher predation pressure, in combination with unfavourable feeding conditions for the zooplankton including the low density of green algae and the high density of filamentous cyanobacteria. A biomanipulation experiment in Lake Breukeleveen, one of the Loosdrecht lakes, indicated that feeding conditions were too unfavourable for large zooplankton to develop in spring, when the reduced fish biomass was not yet supplemented by natural recruitment and immigration.