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Harmful and parasitic unicellular eukaryotes persist in a shallow lake under reconstruction (L. Karla, Greece)

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Abstract

The reconstructed Lake Karla, Greece, has been undergoing its water-filling period since November 2009. In this paper, we aimed at investigating whether the unicellular eukaryotes, including the toxic/parasitic ones, that have been found during mass fish kills in the lake (March–April 2010), persist during the first warm period of the lake (May, August, November 2010). Given that microscopic characterization of some of these eukaryotes is not adequate for their identification, we analysed the 18S rRNA gene diversity of plankton samples. All the found phylotypes belonged to the phyla of Mesomycetazoa, Chlorophyta, Fungi, Alveolata, Cercozoa, Cryptophyta and Stramenopiles. Some members of these groups seem to persist in Lake Karla as they have been found in early spring as well. These microscopic eukaryotes are either ichthyotoxic/parasitic (e.g. Pfiesteria sp./Pseudopfiesteria shumwayae, some Fungi, Mesomycetazoa, Lagenidium sp., Cercozoa) or indicative of hyper-eutrophic conditions (e.g. Oocystis sp., Scenedesmus spp.) and were rather abundant during the first spring–autumn period of the lake’s refilling process. These complex microscopic communities are expected to shape highly dynamic and variable food webs with the risk of repeated fish kills.

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Acknowledgments

This part of this work was supported by the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, Research Programs 2011. Part of the laboratory work was financed by the MSc programme “Sustainable Management of Aquatic Environment” by the Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly. Peter McGee http://anglais.webs.com/englishotherversions.htm provided editorial and linguistic assistance. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the originally submitted manuscript.

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  1. Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Thessaly, 384 46, Volos, Greece

    Eleni Nikouli, Konstantinos Ar. Kormas & Panagiotis Berillis

  2. Department of Biological Applications and Technology, University of Ioannina, 451 10, Ioannina, Greece

    Hera Karayanni

  3. School of Biology, Department of Botany, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Maria Moustaka-Gouni

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  1. Eleni Nikouli
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Correspondence to Konstantinos Ar. Kormas.

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Nikouli, E., Kormas, K.A., Berillis, P. et al. Harmful and parasitic unicellular eukaryotes persist in a shallow lake under reconstruction (L. Karla, Greece). Hydrobiologia 718, 73–83 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-013-1604-8

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