Planktonic events may cause polymictic-dimictic regime shifts in temperate lakes.

ABSTRACT: Water transparency affects the thermal structure of lakes, and within certain lake depth ranges, it can determine whether a lake mixes regularly (polymictic regime) or stratifies continuously (dimictic regime) from spring through summer. Phytoplankton biomass can influence transparency but the effect of its seasonal pattern on stratification is unknown. Therefore we analysed long term field data from two lakes of similar depth, transparency and climate but one polymictic and one dimictic, and simulated a conceptual lake with a hydrodynamic model. Transparency in the study lakes was typically low during spring and summer blooms and high in between during the clear water phase (CWP), caused when zooplankton graze the spring bloom. The effect of variability of transparency on thermal structur

SUBMITTER: Shatwell T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4830945 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature