Interaction among bacterioplankton and macrophytes in shallow lakes with high macrophyte cover
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Aquatic Sciences
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Interaction among bacterioplankton and macrophytes in shallow lakes with high macrophyte cover Nóra Szabó‑Tugyi1 · Viktor R. Tóth1 Received: 17 January 2020 / Accepted: 27 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Growth of submerged and emergent macrophytes was studied together with heterotrophic bacterioplankton abundance and production in two Hungarian shallow lakes with dominant macrophyte covers. It was expected that bacterioplankton numbers and activity would have an effect on macrophyte biomass accumulation. Bacterial production and abundance showed a strong seasonal pattern with maximum in the warmest months (July, August). It was found that macrophyte biomass increased with heterotrophic bacterial production and abundance up to 5.6 µg C l− 1 h− 1 and 5.30*106 cells, respectively, while over that value was negatively associated with macrophyte growth. It was also shown that the relationship between heterotrophic bacteria and macrophytes also varied seasonally, showing a multifaceted relationship. It was demonstrated that macrophytes are not only the most significant carbon and energy source for the bacteria in shallow, macrophyte-dominated lakes, but are also competing organisms that could be supressed by excessive bacterial activity. These findings could help better understand the interaction between macrophytes and bacterioplankton, and assist wetland managers in quantifying what may be a primary cause of reed die-back. Keywords Bacterioplankton · Macrophytes · Sctivity · Abundance · Litter · Biomass accumulation
Introduction Although wetlands and littoral zones cover less than 7% of the Earth’s land surface, they are the most important natural carbon reserves (Reddy and DeLaune 2008) one of the most productive zones globally, as well as sites of intense decomposition, especially of organic carbon (Richey et al. 2002; Duarte and Prairie 2005). These areas are therefore crucial, not only to the freshwater water bodies with which they are associated, but also to connected terrestrial landscapes (Odum 1956; Schindler and Scheuerell 2002). Macrophytes simultaneously integrate the effects of and changes to several environmental factors (Lacoul and Freedman 2006). Rooted macrophytes, via their roots and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-020-00753-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Viktor R. Tóth [email protected] 1
Centre for Ecological Research, Balaton Limnological Institute, Tihany, Hungary
rhizomes, are affected by the sediment in a wide variety of ways (Barko et al. 1991; Armstrong et al. 19962006). Some such interactions are universal, while some are specific to the aquatic environment. Plant growth is directly affected by nutrient availability and uptake (Barko and Smart 1986; Lacoul and Freedman 2006; Tóth et al. 2017), and the growth and distribution of macrophytes are also affected by the different chemical and physical characteristic
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