Before and after studies of the effects of a power plant installation on Lake Lyndon B. Johnson: phytoplankton succession and the productivity of individual algal species. Interim report No. 7

Technical Report · Sat May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1976

OSTI ID:6818494

Davenport, J B; Maguire, B Jr

The temporal changes in the standing crop and productivity of individual phytoplankton species have been monitored for an annual period in Lake Lyndon B. Johnson. The standing crop estimate for each species was obtained by measuring cell sizes and converting cell counts to volumetric units, while individual species' productivity was determined using the carbon-14 autoradiographic technique described by Maguire and Neill (1971). At any one time, the proportional productivity of the various phytoplankton species can be very different from their proportional standing crops. Some species (for example, the green alga Scenedesmus 1 and many of the bluegreens) were frequently major contributors to the biomass of the phytoplankton despite having comparatively low average productivity per unit biomass. The relationship between productivity and standing crop may also vary greatly within a single species during different periods of its annual cycle. These observations suggest that differential loss rates (as well as differential reproductive rates) have substantial effects on the pattern of seasonal succession in natural phytoplankton communities. Estimated loss rates (calculated from productivity and standing crop measurements) support the implication that differential loss was sometimes a more important influence on the relative standing crop of the different species than was differential productivity.

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., Austin (USA). Center for Research in Water Resources
• OSTI ID: 6818494
• Report Number(s): CRWR-136
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ALGAE
ANNUAL VARIATIONS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
BASELINE ECOLOGY
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BIOMASS
CHEMICAL EFFLUENTS
ECOLOGY
ENERGY SOURCES
LAKES
NORTH AMERICA
PHYTOPLANKTON
PLANKTON
PLANTS
POWER PLANTS
PRODUCTIVITY
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SOUTHWEST REGION
SURFACE WATERS
TEXAS
THERMAL EFFLUENTS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
USA
VARIATIONS