Phytoplankton Diversity in New York Lakes

Ryan Butryn and Rick Naro

http://www.durr.demon.co.uk/volvox.html

http://www.turnerdesigns.com/t2/instruments/10au.html

Study Sites

• Analysis of phytoplankton diversity and chlorophyll-a levels in New York lakes:– Arbutus Lake– Wolf Lake– Catlin Lake– Oneida Lake– Green Lake– Onondaga Lake– Skaneateles Lake

Wolf Lake

Chlorophyll Study Site Procedures

• Collect water sample from defined lake layers– epilimnion– metalimnion– hypolimnion

• Green Lake sampling included– chemocline– monimolimnion

Arbutus Lake

Chlorophyll Lab Procedure

• Turner Designs 10-AU Field Fluorometer– Measures the fluorescence of

chlorophyll-a– Highly sensitive– Suitable for extractive and in vivo

analysis

• Sample Processing– 100ml water sample filtered– Filter paper dissolved in 10ml acetone

http://www.turnerdesigns.com/t2/instruments/10au.html

Chlorophyll-a Results

Ska

ne

ate

les

Arb

utu

s

Wo

lf

Gre

en

Ca

tlin

On

eid

a

On

on

da

ga 0

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30

Chlorophyll-a (μg/l)

Sampling Location

Skaneateles

Arbutus

Wolf

Green

Catlin

Oneida

Onondaga

A Special Case: Green Lake

• Lake profile appears to be similar to other low productivity lakes

• Highest chlorophyll-a level is found in the chemocline

Green Lake Chlorophyll-a Profile

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Epilimnion Metalimnion Hypolimnion Chemocline Monimolimnion

Sample Location

Why is chlorophyll-a so high?

• We hypothesize that green photosynthetic bacteria should be present in solution and masked by the purple bacteria

• Further processing is required to confirm this.

Phytoplankton Collection

• Van Dorn trap used to sample each lake layer

• Samples stabilized with preservative solution

• Identified and counted under microscope

Phytoplankton DivisionsArbutus Lake

Cyanophyta Chlorophyta Chrysophyta

Green Lake

Chlorophyta Pyrrophyta CryptophytaEuglenophyta Cyanophyta

Catlin Lake

Diatom Chrysophyta Cyanophyta Chlorophyta

Skaneate les Lake

Cyanophyta Euglenophyta Chlorophyta

Phytoplankton DivisionsOneida Lake

Diatom Cyanophyta Euglenophyta

Chlorophyta Chrysophyta Pyrrophyta

Onondaga Lake

Euglenophyta Chlorophyta Cryptophyta

Cyanopyta diatom Chrysophyta

Quadricoccus euryhalinicus

Catlin Phytoplankton Genera

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Hypolimnion

Metalimnion

Epilimnion

Oneida Phytoplankton Genera

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Hypolimnion

Metalimnion

Epilimnion

Onondaga Phytoplankton Genera

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Hypolimnion

Metalimnion

Epilimnion

Summary of Observations

• Chlorophyll– Highest in epilimnion and hypolimnion in eutrophic

lakes, lower in metalimnion– Relatively constant density in oligotrophic lakes– Green Lake a special case

• Phytoplankton– Increasing eutrophication = higher phytoplankton

diversity– Cyanophytes tend to dominate eutrophic lakes– Chlorophytes dominate more oligotrophic lakes– More plankton diversity in epilimnion, more plankton

numbers in metalimnion and hypolimnion