Bacterial grazing by phagotrophic phytoflagellates in a deep humic lake in northern Sweden

Bacterial grazing was measured from June to August 1995 in Lake Ortrasket, a deep brown-water lake in northern Sweden. Mixotrophic chrysophytes were the dominating bacterivores at all times, grazing 3-14% of bacterial standing stock daily. The effects of altered nutrient supply and light availability on grazing activity and growth were studied in two mesocosm experiments. Incubation in the dark did not stimulate phagotrophy, which would otherwise be expected if bacteria were mainly being used as an energy source. Furthermore, clearance rates were not reduced after alleviation of nutrient limitation conditions. Rather, phagotrophy may work as a relatively fixed attribute of the mixotrophic community in this lake. When availability of dissolved nutrients is restricted, phagotrophy permits the mixotrophs to outcompete other phytoplankton, but they become less competitive at high nutrient concentrations. The relative share of mixotrophs in relation to total phytoplankton decreased considerably after enrichment with nitrogen + phosphorus.