The recent diatom history of Loch Leven, Kinross

Diatoms in the top metre of lake sediment have been studied for indications or recent changes in the environment of Loch Leven. The diatoms indicate a eutrophic, alkaline lake with Melosira italica ssp. subarctica, Tabellaria Flocculosa and Stephanodiscus astraea the dominant taxa at the base of the 1-m section. There is then an appeance of Melosira ambigua and Stephanodiscus hantzschii suggesting a richer environment. Post A.D. 1816 changes in taxa suggest possible correlation with the lowering of lake level in 1830 and the dominance of Diatoma elongatum, Cyclotella pseudostelligera, Stephanodiscus astraea var. minutula, S. tenuis, S. hantzschii, and Synedra rumpens and var. soctica in zone 4 agrees with present-day plankton records.     

Observations on a diatom bloom in Loch Leven, Scotland

A study was made on a freshwater planktonic population of centric diatoms, mainly Stephanodiscus rotula (Kütz.) Hendey, in Loch Leven, Kinross, Scotland. The observations were analyzed in relation to changes in water temperature and chemistry, parasitism by a chytridiaceous fungus, grazing by a recently described protozoan and competition from another alga ( Synechococcux sp.). Each of these factors is thought to have affected the recorded rise and fall in diatom population density, in particular, silica limitation, fungal parasitism and protozoan grazing.
The protozoan involved ( Asterocaelum algophilum Canter) forms digestion cysts, the predominantly diatomaceous contents of which suggested very selective feeding but laboratory experiments with dual cultures did not confirm this. They indicated that both the size and quality of algae affected their suitability as food. Feeding activities of Asterocaelum seemed to be more or less confined to a solid surface; grazing rates in cultures shaken to maintain the animals and algae in suspension were low relative to those observed in unshaken cultures. This suggests that much of the grazing occurred on diatoms that had sunk onto the sediments.     

Composition and dynamics of a highly diverse diatom assemblage in a limestone stream

The algal assemblages of a small limestone stream were studied for a year at monthly intervals. Algal standing crop was permanently high (mean concentration of 158 mg Chl-a · m^–2), but it reached the maximum values in spring and summer. Diatoms were dominant in the algal assemblages throughout this time, and more than one hundred species were recorded during the survey. Most of them are characteristic of hard waters, but others, mainly occurring in summer, have been observed elsewhere in moderately halophile waters.A striking succession was observed in the diatom assemblage in the stream in each season. This succession, with a maximum in summer, was mainly related with the lessening in flow and the increase in water mineralization. Moreover, the diversity of the samples increased sharply from April 1982 to July 1983. In fact, a progressive increase in salinity tolerant species could be observed from winter and spring to summer. Nitzschia sociabilis, Navicula gregaria, Navicula lanceolata and Gomphonema olivaceum were the most abundant species in winter, whereas Achnanthes minutissima reached its maximum in spring and Navicula schroeterii, Nitzschia thermaloides and Cyclotella meneghiniana were some of the most abundant in summer.     

Identifying from recent sediment records the effects of nutrients and climate on diatom dynamics in Loch Leven

1. Changes in nutrients and climate have occurred over approximately the same timescales in many European lake catchments. Here, we attempt to interpret the sedimentary diatom record of a large shallow lake, Loch Leven, in relation to these pressures using information gained from analysis of long‐term data sets of water quality, climate and planktonic diatoms. 2. The core data indicate the enrichment of Loch Leven starting in c. 1800–1850, most likely from agricultural practices in the catchment, with a more marked phase since c. 1940–1950 caused by increased phosphorus inputs from sewage treatment works, land drainage and a woollen mill. 3. While the recent diatom plankton remains are dominated by taxa associated with nutrient‐rich conditions, an increase in Aulacoseira subarctica relative to Stephanodiscus taxa since the mid‐1980s suggests that reductions in external catchment sources of nutrients (since 1985) may have resulted in partial recovery. This observation accords well with the long‐term monitoring series of water chemistry and phytoplankton. 4. On a decadal‐centennial scale, the eutrophication signal in the sediment record outweighs any evidence of climate as a control on the diatom community. However, at an inter‐annual scale, while the diatom data exhibit high variability, there are several changes in species composition in the recent fossil record that may be attributed to climatic controls. 5. The study highlights the value of a palaeolimnological approach, particularly when coupled with long‐term data sets, for developing our understanding of environmental change at a range of temporal scales. The diatom record in the sediment can be used effectively to track recovery from eutrophication, but requires greater understanding of contemporary ecology to fully interpret climate impacts. 6. The study illustrates the complexity of ecosystem response to synchronous changes in nutrients and climate, and the difficulty of disentangling the effects of these multiple, interacting pressures.     

Change to a diatom assemblage in a eutrophic lake following point source nutrient re-direction: a palaeolimnological approach

SUMMARY. 1. Lough Augher, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, underwent eutrophication as a result of untreated effluent disposal by a local creamery, from 1900 until 1972–73, when primary sewage treatment began. When this remedial action met with limited success the effluent was redirected to the River Blackwater, downstream of the lake 2. A sediment core taken in July 1981 shows an unambiguous record of the diatom response to this eutrophication; the species succession represents a clear eutrophication gradient, with a shift from mesotrophic plankton forms (Aulacoseira ambigua, Asterionella formosa, Fragilaria crotonensis, Diatoma tenue var. elongatum) to a variety of small Stephanodiscus spp. typical of very eutrophic conditions (S. parvus, S. hantzschii). The succession is in reasonable agreement with that predicted by changing Si:P ratios. 3. A second, short core, taken in September 1985, shows dramatic changes in the diatom plankton after 1981, with resurgences and rapid increases of species present early in the lake's eutrophication, and representative of mesotrophic conditions. There is clear agreement between the biostratigraphic record of the two cores, for the time period during which they overlap, c. 1970–81. 4. The available chemical data post-dates the re-direction of the creamery effluent. However, it indicates that the phosphorus concentration is in equilibrium with the loading, and has stabilized following effluent re-direction. There were no significant differences for chlorophyll a and total phosphorus between the years for which data are available. The mean concentrations were 10, 14 and 10 g 1^?1 chlorophyll a, and 61, 63 and 58 g TP 1^?1 in 1978, 1979 and 1982 respectively. 5. A Correspondence Analysis Joint-plot is used to summarize the biostratigraphy of the two cores. It serves as an ecological summary of the responses of the plankton diatoms to changing nutrient concentrations and ratios, following redirection of the creamery effluent, and demonstrates clearly the new direction taken by the planktonic diatoms. Although the phosphorus and chlorophyll a data suggest that the lake returned quickly to an equilibrium state, the diatom community continued to change. suggesting a time-lag effect and non-equilibrium responses by the planktonic diatoms to their nutrient environment. 6. The potential value of palaeolimnological approaches to long- and medium-term monitoring of diatom plankton changes should not be underestimated; they may provide an important time component for limnological restoration projects.     

Effects of increased salinity on the diatom assemblage in Fonda Lake,Michigan

A salt storage facility has been located adjacent to Fonda Lake since 1953. In February 1981 a core was taken from the profundal sediments of the lake and analyzed to determine the effects of salt perturbation on the diatom community over a 32-year period. Diatom assemblages from different levels were compared using multivariate techniques including cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Shifts in diatom composition related to salinification were revealed most clearly by subdominant taxa. Five distinct groups of diatom taxa were found to correspond with 5 depth intervals. The diatom component of the lake up to 1960 included two groups of taxa which were alkaliphilous and chloride indifferent. A reduction in species diversity beginning in 1960 may indicate a salt effect. By 1968, when diversity reached a minimum, a variety of halophilic taxa (including Diatoma tenue, Navicula gregaria and Synedra fasciculata) attained their highest relative abundances. At the top of the core, diversity increased slightly and some halophilic taxa decreased in relative abundance, which suggests a possible decrease in salt loading to the lake.     

苹果树腐烂病菌不同致病力菌株对苹果的诱导效应

以‘富士’苹果叶片为材料, 采用刺伤接种法, 比较了苹果树腐烂病菌强致病菌LXS080601和弱致病菌LXS081501侵染对寄主体内丙二醛（MDA）含量、渗透调节物质及防御酶活性的影响。结果表明, 两菌株侵染后, 叶片MDA、蛋白质和可溶性糖含量均增加, 接种LXS080601叶片MDA含量快速上升, 最大增幅为141.15%, 而接种LXS081501叶片的MDA含量变化较小, 增幅仅为1.16%-16.24%, 但后者可溶性糖和蛋白质含量增幅分别高达158.12%和113.57%, 显著高于接种LXS080601的处理。同时, 两菌株均能诱导叶片内4种防御酶活性的升高, 但LXS081501诱导的苯丙氨酸解氨酶（PAL）、过氧化物酶（POD）、过氧化氢酶（CAT）和多酚氧化酶（PPO）活性均显著高于LXS080601, 说明不同致病力腐烂病菌对寄主防御酶活性的影响存在显著差异。     

The Loch Eil project: Planktonic pigments in sediments from Loch Eil and the firth of Lorne

Photosynthetic pigments and their derivatives were measured in sediments in the fjordic Loch Eil and the Firth of Lome, Scotland, between November 1975 and November 1976. After acetone extraction from the top 10 mm of sediment cores, pigments were crudely separated, by fluorescence change on acidification, into (chlorophyll a + chlorophyllide a) and phaeopigments. The greatest pigment concentrations (mean 73 μg · g sediment dry wt^?1) were found in the most reducing sediments which also had a high average proportion (23%) of chlorophyll. The least mean pigment concentration (23 μg · g^?1) and proportion of chlorophyll (17%) were found in the most oxidizing sediments in the Firth of Lorne where there was a clear seasonal cycle, with a peak in sediment pigment concentration and chlorophyll proportion in May and June, just after the planktonic spring increase. The Loch Eil stations showed a less clear or no seasonal cycle; the station most affected by organic input was the most variable from month to month. It was concluded that redox status was the most obvious control of sediment pigment content, whereas the effect of sedimentation of phytoplankton was complex.     

Hydrological controls on the diatom assemblage of a seasonal arctic river: Boothia Peninsula,Nunavut, Canada

This study characterizes the melt season diatom assemblage of a middle arctic river with respect to hydrological conditions. In addition, the potential to identify species that show a strong affinity for the lotic environment provides an opportunity to interpret stratigraphic changes in these species in the lake sedimentary record in terms of past hydrological change. Understanding long-term hydrological variability is critical for assessing both current and future environmental change. Significantly higher relative abundances of Achnanthes minutissimaKützing, Fragilaria capucina var. vaucheriae (Kützing) Lange-Bertalot, Diatoma tenuisAgardh, Cymbella arctica(Lagerstedt) Schmidt, C. minutaHilse ex. Rabenhorst, C. silesiaca Bleisch and Encyonema fogedii Krammer in the lotic environment throughout the 2001 growing season compared to the lacustrine sedimentary record suggest that these species characterize the Lord Lindsay River diatom assemblage. Comparison of seasonal abundances of these taxa to hydrological parameters including discharge, electrical conductivity, and water temperature reveal key information about the character of this community. The fact that the river diatom assemblage changes very little throughout the sampling period, despite major changes in hydrological conditions, suggests a degree of resilience and inherent structure in the community. However, a decrease in diatom biomass in response to rapid and dramatic changes in hydrological conditions following a major rainfall event suggests that a threshold tolerance may exist, with potentially important implications for interpreting stratigraphic changes in the paleoenvironmental record.     

The distribution of intertidal algae in a Hebridean Loch

Summary

Ten species of Rhopalostroma are currently known and all are from either Africa or Asia. Rhopalostroma gracile D. Hawksw. and R. kanyae Whalley &; Thienhirun have previously been reported from Thailand. A further species, R. lekae sp. no v., is now described from Thailand. Thus three out of the eleven known species of Rhopalostroma are from Thailand.     

The physico-Chemical limnology of Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond, the largest freshwater lake in Britain, is physically divided into a number of distinct basins by geological structures. The northern part of the loch is long, narrow and deep whilst the southern area is broad and shallow with many islands scattered throughout it.The water chemistry of the loch is dictated by the geology of catchment and the quality of the rivers flowing into it. The two major rivers, the Falloch and the Endrick Water, are both of good quality with low nutrient content. Consequently, the loch is regarded as oligotrophic, though the southern area verges towards being mesotrophic.     

The treatment of chromium tanning wastewater using natural marl

Abstract

The technical feasibility of removing chromium(III) from contaminated tannery wastewater by adsorption on naturally available marl, referred to as HEWAR in Palestine, has been investigated by batch experiments. The effects of various parameters on the percentage relative adsorption concentration were carried out by UV-vis spectrophotometry. Percentage relative concentration curves showed an increase with time until approaching a plateau (adsorption capacity). The adsorption capacity increased with the marl-to-liquid ratio, providing complete removal of chromium above 0.003g mL^?1 accomplished within 7 hours, while the marl particles were kept in suspension by stirring. The adsorption capacity increased with pH above 5.0, and decreased below this value. One sample of marl can be used for adsorbing chromium from various batches of wastewater until the adsorption sites are full.     

The integral structure of a benthic infaunal assemblage

It has been suggested that the scaling relationships of many features of the physical environment and biological traits are fractal-like, but for the marine benthic infauna certain aspects of the environment clearly are not. These include temporal features such as the cycles of annual climate, primary production and tides, and also some spatial features such as sediment granulometry and the size of the primary producers that constitute the food supply. We explicitly addressed these issues by determining the degree to which infaunal assemblage structure (diversity, species composition, spatial pattern) varies with mesh size, sample size and sample dispersion within an apparently homogeneous area of coarse intertidal sand in the Isles of Scilly, UK. Samples were extracted using a standard range of 5 mesh sizes (63, 125, 250, 500, 1000 μm), with the sample areas and distances between samples scaled to the mesh size. All metazoans were identified to species level. Diversity and species composition did not show a gradual and even degree of change over the size range. Instead, they showed a dramatic stepwise change between the 250 and 500 μm mesh size samples, being relatively constant in the < 500 and > 500 μm categories, with diversity higher in the former. Higher proportions of species in the < 500 μm categories had values of an index of dispersion significantly different to 1 than among species in the > 500 μm categories. This suggests a fractal structure within but not between the < 500 and > 500 μm body size categories. The implications of this for rapid diversity assessment by extrapolation between size classes are discussed. Although the interplay between 3 and 2 dimensional processes in what is a essentially a 2-D study may account for some of the observations, comparative studies suggest that these patterns do not simply correspond to the physical scaling of habitat complexity, and they must therefore relate to some more universal scaling relationships that are not fractal-like. We suggest that the important relationships are those between body size and various biological characteristics such as feeding behaviour, reproductive mode and life history as they are affected by the spatial and temporal structure of the environment.     

The Loch Eil project: The bacterial flora and heterotrophic nitrogen fixation in sediments of Loch Eil

The organically enriched sediments of Loch Eil reduced acetylene (fixed nitrogen) at a higher rate than sediments in the Firth of Lome and other near shore marine locations. Sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) were implicated in nitrogen fixation although fixation rates did not correlate with the SRB numbers found in these sediments. The data suggest that a negative relationship may exist between nitrogen fixation and the sulphide content of sediments.     

The Loch eil project: Simulation of the hydrology and sediment inputs to Loch Eil

The two objectives of the study were the assessment of the water and sediment response of the ungauged catchments draining to Loch Eil, and the analysis of the sensitivity of erosion processes to the variation of input precipitation and sediment characteristics. The technique employed was the application of the Strathclyde Sediment Model I, which had already been tested on the Scottish river basins using data from several sources. The method showed some potential but provided only a rough comparison with the actual sedimentation in the Loch.     

The reproductive flight phenology of a neotropical ant assemblage

1. Alate flights reflect an ant colony's investment in sexual reproduction and dispersal yet little is known about community‐wide patterns of alate phenology. Two Malaise traps (for 2 years) and two light traps (for 1 year) were used to explore the flight phenologies of 22 common neotropical species from Barro Colorado Island, Panama. 2. The traps caught 23 182 individuals and 286 species/morphospecies. The two trap methods shared only 18 species. Samples also differed in sexual composition: light trap samples were 80% female, Malaise trap samples were 2.6% female. 3. Of 22 common species, all but one flew over half the year, with about half flying every month of the year. These data, combined with a literature review, suggest a latitudinal gradient in alate flight season: one north temperate assemblage (42°N) averaged 1.6 lunar months per species. The ever‐warm tropical year provides a larger flight window that allows a diversity of phenologies, from continuous to strongly pulsed. 4. Rainfall was correlated with alate flights in one‐third of the species. Quantile regression suggested that high weekly rainfall was necessary but not sufficient to produce alate flights in about a quarter of the species. 5. By decreasing the number of nests releasing alates on a given day, long flight seasons may lower the probability of finding a mate. At the same time, long flight seasons may increase the opportunity of finding vacant nest sites. High population densities and high incidence of nest disturbance in this community may ameliorate the first cost while enhancing the second benefit.     

The woodland vegetation of Inchcailloch,Loch Lomond

Summary

A systematic sample of 416 stands of vegetation was subjected to Indicator Species Analysis which classified the stands into sixteen Groups. For practical reasons these were amalgamated into ten Interpreted Groups which are described in terms of species representation and cover. The distribution of stands in the various Groups is described and is related where possible to environmental factors.     

The ecology of a diatom community in a thermal stream

From 1964 to 1967 the annual variations in the relative abundance of diatoms in a thermal stream draining a hot spring were examined for changes in species diversity (H) and redundancy (R). Despite large seasonal changes in abundance and shifts in the species composition, the values in general did not deviate significantly from the calculated mean diversity value. This relative constancy of H was interpreted as an indication of diatom community stability. The species exhibited a characteristic pattern of seasonal abundance that is thought be to partially attributable to a light adaptation phenomenon. Three cores were obtained from the soft sediment of the spring and were analysed for diatom remains. The cores were dated by a pumice layer of known age and interpretations relative to the ontogeny of the diatom community added a significant time dimension to the yearly diatom analysis.     

The effects of nutrient enrichment on a freshwater meiofaunal assemblage

1. The effects of eutrophication on phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish in lakes are well known. By contrast, little is known about the response of the zoobenthos to nutrient enrichment, while smaller organisms, such as the meiofauna, have for the most part been neglected. 2. In a long‐term (16 months) microcosm experiment, we assessed the effects of five levels of nutrients [total phosphorus (TP), 7–250 μg L^?1; nitrate, 2–8 mg L^?1] on a freshwater meiofaunal assemblage and on nematode diversity in particular. 3. Within the first 8 months, meiofaunal succession was only weakly affected, whereas, during the last 4 months, nutrient addition influenced most of the main taxa, with a concomitant change in the assemblage structure. 4. The density of the numerically dominant nematodes decreased upon nutrient enrichment, whereas ostracods became more numerous. Other taxa, including copepods, reached a maximum at intermediate nutrient levels or, in case of oligochaetes, were almost unaffected by nutrient enrichment. However, the changes in the density of the main taxa were usually insufficient to alter their biomass. Consequently, meiofaunal biomass was remarkably unresponsive to nutrient addition, while meiofaunal density displayed a unimodal relationship, with a peak at a TP concentration of 30 μg L^?1. In addition, nematode species richness decreased significantly with increasing nutrient concentrations. 5. We hypothesise that the response of meiofaunal taxa to nutrients is attributable to the development of primary producers, which shifted with enrichment from low densities of edible diatoms and unicellular green algae to large standing stocks of inedible forms, such as Lemna minor and Cladophora spp.