Ecology of the Cryptophyceae in a North Temperate Hardwater Lake: Technical Progress Report.

摘要

The Cryptophyceae is a poorly understood small class of single celled flagellate algae with an ubiquitous distribution, often cited for large contributions to phytoplankton biomass. Interest in cryptophyte ecology has recently increased as information on their nutritional quality, short turnover times and intermittent dominance has accumulated. The objectives of this research were to (1) characterize short-interval cryptophyte dynamics within the framework of the annual phytoplankton community structure, (2) measure in situ cryptophyte productivity for comparison with total phytoplankton community productivity, and (3) evaluate the impact of grazing losses to the cryptophytes. Routine limnological sampling was conducted biweekly while crytophyte samples were collected daily over an annual period (1982-83) from phosphorus limited Lawrence Lake, Michigan. Only 20 of 121 species of algae contributed greater than 5% of the total biovolume at any particular time. Algal biovolume was often dominated by large unicellular species. Microflagellates (<10 mu m) constituted ca. 80 percent of the total algal units annually but their contributions to algal volume were <10%. 100 refs., 45 figs., 6 tabs. (ERA citation 13:054983)