Pelagic Diatom Populations in Lentic Freshwater Microcosms

✍ Scribed by John Harte; Donald Levy; John T. Rees

• Book ID: 102869862
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 797 KB
• Volume: 68
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1434-2944
• DOI: 10.1002/iroh.19830680212

✦ Synopsis

Three experiments, involving simultaneous monitoring of selected biological and chemical parameters in 50 1 laboratory micreeosms and the epilimnia of their parent reservoirs, were carried out from the autumn of 1978 t o the winter of 1980. Experiments lasted 8-13 weeks, their aim being to ascertain degree of similarity between laboratory and field systems. Microcosm dynamics, specifically diatom dynamics, most closely paralleled that found in reservoirs during late spring and early summer, a time of thermal stratification. During winter months when thermal stratification was absent or less pronounced, inicrocosm diatom populations diverged significantly from reservoir populations within 24 days. It is inferred that microcosm design and operating conditions have a major bearing on microcosm usefulness for environmental assessment.