The Effects of a Recurrent Coastal Plume
on the Dynamics and Structure of the Lower Food Web in Southern Lake Michigan
W. Gardner and P. Lavrentyev
The Lake Michigan Recurrent Coastal Plume (LMRCP) may fundamentally affect food web
dynamics in Lake Michigan by causing major changes, during the winter-spring transition
period, that, in turn, define the annual evolution of the biotic community in the lake. These
effects can be observed by examining phytoplankton, zooplankton, and microbial food web
structure and function in the field in combination with N-cycling studies that serve as an
indicator of autrophic and heterotrophic community dynamics. We hypothesize that:
The
population growth of phytoplankton and bacteria are enhanced at the edge of the plume,
where light levels are higher than inside the plume and nutrients are higher than in
surrounding waters. The phytoplankton community structure will shift toward small-sized
taxa in the plume relative to offshore waters.
The proportion of phytoplankton production
consumed in the pelagic zone will, in turn, increase due to increase in herbivory by nano- and
microzooplankton at the edge of the plume.
Increased growth and grazing rates of these
consumers will lead to increased nutrient regeneration rates at the plume edge and increased
high-quality food supply for crustacean zooplankton.
To examine these hypotheses, we will
compare structure and abundances of microbial food web organisms before, during, and after
plume formation; measure N cycling rates in relation to community and species-specific
grazing rates of microzooplankton within, at the edge, and outside of the LMRCP.
Observations, experiments, and results will be coordinated with those from primary
production and zooplankton grazing experiments and other studies of nutrient and physical
processes to complete a conceptual model and provide data for the proposed coupled
biological/physical model.