A review of regulation mechanisms of metazoan plankton in riverine ecosystems: aquatic habitat versus biota

This review summarizes the key factors of a series of articles about animal plankton in rivers, a topic that remains poorly investigated. Running water, in which sampling processes are variable and often difficult, acts as a constraint as well as a resource for plankton. Assessment of the potamoplankton reveals that good swimmers of the true plankton are mixed with numerous poor swimmers among littoral and epibenthic forms. Small taxa dominate communities in most of rivers all over the world and, in comparison with crustaceans; the successful development of rotifers rests on their shorter development times. According to hydraulic and geomorphological features, the diversity of the habitats and the ability of individuals to avoid washout was examined, decrease in flow creating standing zones favourable to zooplankton development. Many species can find suitable conditions for the development of dense populations in stream habitats and examples of taxa‐specific response, regardless of the habitat structure, are observed. While the challenge for riverine plankton remains ‘eat to be fruitful and multiply’, their activities have been poorly investigated in turbulent conditions, those able to continue growing in a current of 20 cm s^?1, such as brachionid species, being usually dominant in rivers. Examination of the distribution of plankton populations, in the Middle Loire and in other rivers, showed that the flow regime, which plays a central role in organizing river habitats, explains the presence/absence of these fast‐growing organisms. While reservoirs are major sources of crustaceans, lateral exchanges as well as downstream transport are important in determining the plankton. These ecosystems are primarily governed by abiotic factors, biological control taking place after physical control has happened. Because animals arrive by chance in any habitat during dispersion, zooplankton in rivers remains primarily governed by unpredictable physical processes and depends on the age of the water and the availability of habitats. In this way, the hydro‐dynamics of river habitats need to be more documented with regard to their key role in the planktonic life. Preservation of the lentic areas remaining at the heart of the matter, the contrasting ecology of the rotifers should be a reliable tool with which to estimate the changes in habitats diversity of main channels, particularly during droughts, while crustacean's diversity would be more representative of flood plain annexes, particularly during flood events. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Zebra Mussels on the Lower Planktonic Foodweb in Lake Champlain

Selective grazing by zebra mussels has altered phytoplankton communities in many North American lakes, but the specific changes are not the same in each ecosystem. Because of this variation in response, we investigated the impacts of zebra mussels on the plankton community of Lake Champlain with two objectives: first to determine whether zebra mussels increased the dominance of potentially toxic cyanobacteria in the phytoplankton, and second to explore the impact of zebra mussels on protozoans, rotifers, copepod nauplii, and other microzooplankton in the lower food web. Experiments were conducted in 200-L mesocosms filled with Lake Champlain water filtered through a 150-μm sieve to remove macrozooplankton. Zebra mussels were added to half of the mesocosms while the others were maintained as controls. Over a 96-hour experimental period, we tracked nitrogen and phosphorus concentration, chlorophyll a, microcystin concentration, and both phytoplankton and microzooplankton composition and abundance. We found an increase in SRP and total nitrogen concentration and a decrease in the ratio of TN:TP in the zebra mussel treatments over time. Microcystin was undetectable throughout the experiment using the ELISA assay. Phytoplankton biovolume, including cyanobacteria biovolume, declined significantly in the zebra mussel treatments, as did rotifer, protozoan and nauplii abundance. By both direct (consumption) and indirect (altered nutrient availabilities and increased competition) means, zebra mussels clearly seem capable of strongly influencing the lower planktonic foodweb in the many shallow water habitats of Lake Champlain.     

Ecological tracers track changes in bird diets and possible routes of exposure to Type E Botulism

Dreissenid mussels have become important components of the Great Lakes biological community since their introduction in the 1980s, but much remains to be understood regarding their effect on energy and nutrient flows in pelagic systems. Here, we report a new method that tracks incorporation of resources of molluskan origin into food webs used by aquatic birds. Biochemical tracers (fatty acids and stable carbon isotopes) are used to characterize species associated with pelagic and benthic food webs in Lake Ontario. Our focus is on the polymethylene-interrupted fatty acids (PMI-FAs) because previous research identified mollusks as their primary source. We found that PMI-FA mass fractions were greater in organisms associated with benthic (e.g. round goby) versus pelagic (e.g. alewife) food webs. Double-crested cormorants that had recently consumed benthic prey fish, i.e. goby, had greater proportions of PMI-FAs in their blood plasma than birds which showed no signs of recent goby ingestion. We did not detect an increase in mass fractions of PMI-FAs in cryogenically archived cormorant eggs following expansion of dreissenid mussels in Lake Ontario. However, following the introduction and expansion of round goby in the lake, PMI-FAs were detected at greater levels in cormorant eggs. These results illustrate how only after dreissenid mussel-facilitated establishment of round goby was the full extent of exotic species disruption of food webs manifested in fish-eating birds. These food web changes may be contributing to negative impacts on aquatic birds exemplified by the emergence of Botulism Type E as a significant mortality factor in this ecosystem.     

Sources and Sinks of Escherichia coli in Benthic and Pelagic Fish

Escherichia coli and fecal coliform bacteria were isolated from five benthic and four pelagic fish species to determine their role in the fecal contamination of recreational waters. All fish were collected during fall 2006 from Southworth Marsh in the Duluth-Superior Harbor, a public beach that is commonly posted to minimize water contact due to high E. coli levels. Although fecal coliform bacteria were isolated from each fish species, they were only isolated from 66% and 72% of the individual benthic and pelagic fish, respectively. While 42% of the fecal coliforms from benthic fish were E. coli, only 4% of these bacteria from pelagic fish were E. coli. Cluster analysis showed different fish species harbored identical strains of E. coli and some fish contained multiple E. coli strains. The potential source for 65% of the E. coli isolates obtained from fish were identified by using the HFERP DNA fingerprinting method and libraries of E. coli DNA fingerprints from warm-blooded animals and environmental isolates collected in the area. The E. coli strains whose source could be identified were most similar to strains isolated from sediments, Canada geese, mallard ducks, and wastewater. None of the fish E. coli had DNA fingerprints matching those from any water or beach sand isolates. Although our results demonstrate that benthic fish contain E. coli, it may be more appropriate to consider these fish as a vector of E. coli from other sources, rather than a new source of E. coli contamination in aquatic environments.     

Call for Papers

正As the eldest and most distributed professional journal of water industry,Water Wastewater Engineering(W WE)gained very wide acceptance from the colleagues working in this field in this country since start publication in 1964.Now it is administrated by the Ministry of Construction of the People’s Republic of China and sponsored by the China Civil Engineering Society etc.     

Serial discontinuities in a Rocky mountain river. I. Distribution and abundance of plecoptera

Samples were taken year-round at eleven sites along the altitudinal profile (2900-1400 m a.s.l.) of the Gunnison River, a 329 km tributary of the Colorado River, to document the distribution of the Plecoptera and to evaluate responses to hypolimnial-release dams in the headwaters and middle reaches. Twenty-two species were present, with the greatest species richness occurring in an unregulated segment upstream of the middle reach dams; average nymphal biomass over the study period (175 organisms, 395 mg dry mass m^?2) was also greatest in this segment. Only four species (58 organisms, 48 mg m^?2) were present in the tailwaters of the headwater dam and values were greatly reduced (nine species; 35 organisms, 180 mg m^?2) below the middle reach dams. The stonefly community recovered ca. 80 km downstream from the last dam (15 species; 244 organisms, 250 mg m^?2), apparently in response to natural resetting of environmental conditions corresponding to those above the middle reach dams. At the most downstream site (11) only four species (four organisms, 16 mg m^?2) were present. The observed distributional pattern is a classic serial discontinuity in response to hypolimnial stream regulation in a temperate latitude river.     

库水波动下库岸边坡地下水浸润线解析解及误差分析

解析法是库岸边坡地下水浸润线计算中便于实际应用的方法,但该方法须基于若干假定并对潜水运动基本方程线性化后才能求解。针对各假定和线性化过程建立不同的地下水渗流数学模型,用解析法和有限元法解答上述数学模型,分析各误差大小及其规律。结果表明：库岸垂直处理带来的误差要小于方程线性化处理和不考虑非饱和渗流带来的误差,而且它们都随渗透系数变大而减小;在三峡库区库水调度情况下,假定库水位等速变化带来的误差对大多岸坡而言可以忽略;计算库岸边坡地下水浸润线时,解析法只适用于水位变化幅度相比含水层厚度较小,且几何边界规则、岩土结构简单、岩土体渗透性较好时的情况。     

Changes in Summer Irrigated Crop Area and Water Use in Southeastern Turkey from 1993 to 2002: Implications for Current and Future Water Resources

Changes in summer irrigated cropland acreage and related water use are estimated from satellite remote sensing and ancillary data in semi-arid Southeastern Turkey where traditionally dry agricultural lands are being rapidly transformed into irrigated fields with the help of water from the Euphrates-Tigris Rivers. An image classification methodology based on thresholding of Landsat NDVI images from the peak summer period reveals that the total area of summer irrigated crops has increased three-fold (from 35,000 ha to over 100,000) in the Harran Plain between 1993 and 2002. Coupled analysis of annual irrigated crop area from remote sensing and potential evapotranspiration based estimates of irrigation water requirements for cotton indicate a corresponding increase in agricultural water use from about 370 million cubic meters to over one billion cubic meters, a volume in accordance with the state estimates. These estimates have important implications for understanding the rapid changes in current agricultural withdrawals in Southeastern Turkey and form a quantitative basis for exploring the changes in future water demands in the region. For example, expansion of irrigated lands have led to a steady decrease in potential evaporation due to increased roughness and decreased humidity deficit in the Harran Plain. Assuming that the changes in future evaporation conditions will be of similar nature, water use for irrigation is expected to decrease over 40 percent in future irrigation sites. Incorporating this decrease in overall planning of the irrigation projects currently under construction should lead to improved management, and by extension, sustainability of water resources in the region.