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Impacts of phosphorus concentration and light intensity on river periphyton biomass and community structure

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Abstract

Periphyton growth rate has been identified as the key process that leads to river eutrophication. Effort has focused on reducing phosphorus concentrations to control periphyton biomass, but other factors, such as light, are also important. Within-stream flume mesocosms were deployed in the River Lambourn, UK, to investigate how light intensity and phosphorus concentrations affect periphyton biomass and community structure. Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations were tripled in some flumes, and decreased in others by dosing of FeCl3. Increasing SRP concentrations from the ambient concentration of 49 µg l−1 to 155 µg l−1 had no effect on biomass, but community composition (by flow cytometry) shifted from diatom to cyanobacterial dominance. Reducing light levels (equivalent to riparian tree shading) decreased biomass by 40%, showing that the biofilms were light limited at SRP concentration ≥49 µg l−1. Periphyton were phosphorus/light co-limited when SRP concentrations were reduced to 33 µg l−1. Further reductions in SRP concentration (23 µg l−1) resulted in phosphorus limitation of periphyton biomass and increased dominance of diatoms and chlorophytes within the biofilm. Reducing light intensity through providing riparian tree shading could be an important management tool to reduce periphyton biomass and improve ecological status.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a UK Natural Environment Research Council algorithm PhD studentship, NEC04269, and through NERC National Capability funding. The authors thank Alan Warwick and Cyril Barrett (CEH) for the design, manufacture and installation of the flume mesocosms, Gareth Old (CEH) for allowing access to the long-term River Lambourn Observatory data, Emma Gozzard (CEH) for assistance with GIS and Linda Armstrong, Sarah Harman and Heather Wickham (CEH chemistry laboratory, Wallingford) for their help and support in the analytical analyses. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers whose comments contributed to improving the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK

    Stephanie J. McCall, Daniel S. Read & Michael J. Bowes

  2. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Building, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3QL, UK

    Stephanie J. McCall, Michelle S. Hale & James T. Smith

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  1. Stephanie J. McCall
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  2. Michelle S. Hale
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  5. Michael J. Bowes
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Correspondence to Michael J. Bowes.

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Handling editor: Verónica Jacinta Lopes Ferreira

Electronic supplementary material

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10750_2016_3067_MOESM1_ESM.pptx

Fig. S1. Light intensities monitored within flumes in full light and under shading cloths, throughout the 10 day experiment. Light loggers were submerged at a depth of 4 cm. Supplementary material 1 (PPTX 38 kb)

10750_2016_3067_MOESM2_ESM.pptx

Fig. S2. Water temperatures in shaded and unshaded regions of two flumes, and River Lambourn river water during the course of the 10 day experiment. Supplementary material 2 (PPTX 155 kb)

Table S1. Diatom species list with TDI scores. Supplementary material 3 (DOCX 37 kb)

10750_2016_3067_MOESM4_ESM.xlsx

Table S2. Average nutrient concentrations from longitudinal surveys along the River Lambourn, conducted at monthly intervals between May 2012 and April 2013. Supplementary material 4 (XLSX 10 kb)

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McCall, S.J., Hale, M.S., Smith, J.T. et al. Impacts of phosphorus concentration and light intensity on river periphyton biomass and community structure. Hydrobiologia 792, 315–330 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-3067-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-3067-1

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