The effects of disturbance events on phytoplankton community structure in a small temperate reservoir

1 The effects of disturbances, in the form of storm events, on phytoplankton community structure were examined over the course of four years in Eau Galle Reservoir, Wisconsin, USA. 2 Disturbances consistently brought about significant, but highly transient, increases in apparent phytoplankton specie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Freshwater biology 1999-11, Vol.42 (3), p.503-512
Main Authors: Barbiero, R. P., James, W. F., Barko, J. W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Connell's IDH
Fresh water ecosystems
Freshwater
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
phytoplankton succession
reservoir
species richness
Synecology
USA, Wisconsin
USA, Wisconsin, Eau Galle Reservoir
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Summary:1 The effects of disturbances, in the form of storm events, on phytoplankton community structure were examined over the course of four years in Eau Galle Reservoir, Wisconsin, USA. 2 Disturbances consistently brought about significant, but highly transient, increases in apparent phytoplankton species richness. It is likely that these resulted from temporary increases in the biomass of previously undetected rare species. 3 Substantial shifts in community dominance were confined to large, early season events, and were seldom long‐lived. Later ‘climax’ communities were highly resistant to any changes in dominance, even when increases in species richness occurred. 4 Regardless of when they occurred, disturbances tended to favour species from a narrow range of the successional sequence.
ISSN:0046-5070
1365-2427
DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2427.1999.00491.x