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Does submerged aquatic vegetation shape zooplankton community structure and functional diversity? A test with a shallow fluvial lake system

  • SHALLOW LAKES
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Abstract

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) plays important roles in shallow lakes. In addition to its refuge effect for zooplankton, one key role of SAV is to provide diverse ecological niches to these organisms. The reduction of habitat complexity due to loss of SAV might thus have huge effects on zooplankton communities. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between SAV abundance and composition and zooplankton functional diversity and community structure. We used as model system the littoral zone of Lake St. Pierre (Québec, Canada), a shallow fluvial lake experiencing dramatic changes in SAV cover. Our sampling protocol allowed us to analyse the relationship between SAV and zooplankton along a gradient of SAV abundance. We showed that SAV abundance explained 41% of the variation in the zooplankton community structure and 25% of the variation in zooplankton functional diversity. Our results also indicated that the presence of the benthic cyanobacterium Gloeotrichia sp. in SAV beds had a structuring effect within the dominant family of Chydoridae, being negatively correlated to the abundance of relatively large-bodied species. Our findings suggest that loss in SAV biomass and complexity can affect both community structure and functional diversity of zooplankton in shallow fluvial lakes.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ginette Méthot and Myriam Boisvert for their technical assistance for zooplankton identification. We also thank Philippe Massicotte, Raphaël Proulx and Guillaume Rheault for discussion about the experimental design and the statistical analysis. We also thank Captain Alain Ledoux for safely driving our team on the lake and the members of Jean-Jacques Frenette and Simon Bélanger laboratories who have helped during the sampling campaign as well as Christiane Hudon’s team members who collected SAV data. Financial support was provided by the Fond Québécois de la Recherche Nature et Technologie (ISI-FQRNT), the RIVE-UQTR research centre, and the Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie et en environnement aquatique (GRIL), who also made possible data sharing between the researchers. Thanks to Morgan Botrel for the coordination during sampling and laboratory analysis. Finally, we thank the three reviewers and Mariana Meerhoff, associate editor, for their useful and constructive comments that help us improve significantly this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire en limnologie et en environnement aquatique (GRIL), Département des sciences de l’environnement, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, G9H 5H7, Canada

    Patricia Bolduc & Andrea Bertolo

  2. GRIL, Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, Succ. Centre-ville, C.P. 6128, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7, Canada

    Bernadette Pinel-Alloul

  3. Centre de Recherche sur les Interactions Bassins-Versants-Écosystèmes, Département des Sciences de l’Environnement, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, C.P.500, Trois-Rivières, Québec, G9A 5H7, Canada

    Patricia Bolduc & Andrea Bertolo

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  1. Patricia Bolduc
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  3. Bernadette Pinel-Alloul
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Correspondence to Patricia Bolduc.

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Guest editors: M. Beklioğlu, M. Meerhoff, T. A. Davidson, K. A. Ger, K. E. Havens & B. Moss / Shallow Lakes in a Fast Changing World

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Bolduc, P., Bertolo, A. & Pinel-Alloul, B. Does submerged aquatic vegetation shape zooplankton community structure and functional diversity? A test with a shallow fluvial lake system. Hydrobiologia 778, 151–165 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2663-4

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