Ecological dynamics of two remote alpine lakes during ice-free season

Submitted: 13 November 2012
Accepted: 11 February 2013
Published: 29 May 2013
Abstract Views: 4752
PDF: 796
Supplementary: 209
HTML: 1264
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

We studied hydrochemistry and plankton dynamics in two remote alpine lakes: lake Nivolet superiore (2530 m asl) and lake Trebecchi superiore (2729 m asl) in the Gran Paradiso National Park (Western Italian Alps) in summer 2009. The aim of this study was to enhance the understanding of natural ecological dynamics in the pelagic habitat of alpine lakes by enlarging the number of biotic and abiotic variables usually considered to this end and by increasing the frequency of samplings, generally low in remote lakes. During the eight samplings performed in 2009, chemical and physical variables were measured both in situ and in the laboratory. We also followed the dynamics of all the compartments of the naturally simplified trophic chain of the two lakes from pico-prokaryotes to phytoplankton and zooplankton. Our results confirm the oligotrophic, close-to-pristine state of lake Nivolet and lake Trebecchi as they are not affected by hydromorphological alterations, they are naturally fishless and are not sensitive to acidification risk and acidity pulses. On the other hand, the two lakes have distinct abiotic conditions due to their glacial origin and to the lithological composition of their watersheds. We found some differences in the spatial variation of pico-prokaryotes, phytoplankton and zooplankton due to the different mixing regimes and maximum depth of the two lakes. Conversely, temporal patterns were similar in both lakes, related to ecological interactions and to changes in the abiotic conditions. The rapid succession of events in extreme ecosystems, such as the alpine lakes studied here, confirm the predominant role of external environmental factors (e.g. the duration of the ice-free season) and of ecological interactions among different trophic compartments. This research underlines the importance of seasonal niche partitioning among organisms with different size.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

Supporting Agencies

Gran Paradiso National Park and ISE-CNR, within EU FP7 IP ACQWA Project (Assessment of Climatic change and impacts on the Quantity and quality of WAter), Grant Agreement No. 212250

How to Cite

Tiberti, Rocco, Sabino Metta, Martina Austoni, Cristiana Callieri, Morabito Giuseppe, Marchetto Aldo, Michela Rogora, Gabriele A. Tartari, Jost Von Hardenberg, and Antonello Provenzale. 2013. “Ecological Dynamics of Two Remote Alpine Lakes During Ice-Free Season”. Journal of Limnology 72 (3):e33. https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2013.e33.

Similar Articles

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

List of Cited By :

Crossref logo