Limnology of the Crater Lake Cuicocha, Ecuador, a Cold Water Tropical Lake

✍ Scribed by Günter Gunkel; Camilla Beulker

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 644 KB
• Volume: 94
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1434-2944
• DOI: 10.1002/iroh.200811071

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Cuicocha (3380 m a.s.l.) is a young, a few hundred years old volcanic lake in the western cordilleras of the Ecuadorian Andes with some post‐volcanic activities, such as emission of volcanic gases and input of hydrothermal water. Water chemistry is influenced by the emission of CO~2~ and weathering of the young andesitic rocks in the water shed. A calcium cycle exists in the lake with intensive biological Ca precipitation at the flanks and formation of travertine crusts, while in the hypolimnion dissolution of Ca carbonate occurs. The crater lake is oligotrophic, biodiversity is low; the littoral flora and fauna is more important than the pelagic species. In the littoral zone, a small Totora zone occurs, followed by submerged macrophytes down to 35 m water depth. Phyto‐ and zooplankton occur down into the hypolimnion. Phytoplankton is strongly influenced by down‐welling of water (atelomixis) and by coprecipitation with detritial flocs (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)