ENVS 415: Fundamentals of Aquatic Ecology

Chapter 5: Aquatic Ecosystems

5.1: Structure & Productivity
of Aquatic Ecosystems
Dr. Subodh Sharma, Prof. SG _Edited
 Ch. 5.1: Structure & Productivity of Aquatic
Ecosystems

•Primary production processes deal with photosynthesis, that

is the creation of plant biomass from carbon dioxide, water, and
radiant energy.
• Autotrophs,
•Secondary production is the production of small animals that
feed on the primary producers.
• Consumers
•Tertiary production is the production of larger fish and also
animals that feed on the lower trophic level (secondary
producers).
• Consumers
 Primary Productivity
• Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)
– The rate of production of organic matter from
inorganic materials by autotrophic organisms
• Respiration (R)
– The rate of consumption of organic matter
(conversion to inorganic matter) by organisms.
• Net Primary Productivity (NPP)
– The net rate of organic matter produced as a
consequence of both GPP and R.
 Light & Dark Experiments

zooplankton
phytoplankton
Photosynthesis:
light + 6CO2 + 6H2O C6H12O6 + 6O2
decomposition

Respiration:
C6H12O6 + 6O2 6CO2 + 6H2O
 Measurement of Primary Production: The Light and Dark Bottle Method
• A sample of water containing plankton is placed in a
transparent (clear) bottle and placed in the site for one day;
oxygen is produced by the plants and is also consumed by
the plants and animals
• A similar sample of water is also placed in a dark bottle (so
no sunlight can get in, usually a bottle painted black); if the
bottle is black no sunlight can enter the bottle and thus any
change in oxygen is due to respiration (due to plants and
animals).

The clear bottom picked up +0.004 (photosynthesis + respiration) but the dark
bottom (respiration only) lost 0.006.
We can calculate the "Gross Primary Productivity" as the difference between the
final bottle and black bottle at 9 PM = 0.010 millimoles O2/liter/day.
And, we can calculate the "Net Primary Productivity" as the difference between the
final bottle at 9 PM and the black bottle at 6 AM= 0.004 millimoles O2/liter/day.
 Calculating Primary Productivity
Assume that our incubation period was 1 hour.
Measured oxygen concentrations:
Initial bottle = 8 mg O2 /L
Light bottle = 10 mg O2 /L
Dark bottle = 5 mg O2 /L

(Light - Initial) = (10 - 8) = 2 mg/L/hr = (GPP - R) = NPP

(Initial - Dark) = (8 - 5) = 3 mg/L/hr = Respiration
(Light - Dark) = (10 - 5) = 5 mg/L/hr = (NPP + R) = GPP
Primary Productivity

NPP = GPP - R
 Factors affecting Primary Productivity
1. Hydrodynamic Conditions
– Paradox of stratification (VERTICAL MIXING)
• Upwelling zones
• Thermocline layer
• Diurnal vertical migration

3. Other factors
– Dissolved salts and nutrients
– Depth of water column
– Development of fringing communities
– Gradients of rivers
Primary Production Limitations

• light
• nutrients

Photosynthesis Photic Zone

No Photosynthesis
Aphotic Zone
VERTICAL MIXING also influence productivity:
• critical depth
- depth at which net photosynthesis per
mixing cycle exceeds net respiration
- determined by the time spent at different
depths due to vertical mixing
• Upwelling zones
• Thermocline layer
• Diurnal vertical migration
• Langmuir vortices
 NUTRIENTS often limit productivity:
• inorganic nutrients
- nitrogenous compounds (NO3, NO2, NH3)
- phosphates (PO4)
• trace elements may also be important (e.g., Fe,
Cu)
• nitrate concentrations in rich seawater 1/10,000
of rich soil
• nutrients produced by:
- excretion
- surface runoff
- upwelling
1. Hydrodynamic basis of plankton
productivity
• Paradox of stratification
– Temperature
– light
• Seasonal change in temperature
• Wind driven vertical transport
• Upwelling driven by river run off
• Upwelling driven by tidal mixing
• Upwelling driven by large scale circulation
 5.2a: Role of Temperature in Aquatic
•
volume of water.
Ecosystems
Temperature is a measure of the intensity (not the amount) of heat stored in a

• Heat income to lakes results from several processes:

– Direct absorption of solar radiation
– Transfer of heat from the air
– Condensation of water vapour at the water surface
– Heat transfer from the terrestrial surface via precipitation, surface runoff, and
groundwater inputs
• Heat losses in lakes occur by:
– Specific conduction of heat to the air, and, to a lesser extent, to the sediments
– Evaporation
– Outflow, especially in surface water
Depth temperature profile
 Role of Temperature in Aquatic Ecosystems
• Temperature at the surface is higher
• In temperate and other regions, many lakes of moderate depth (>approx. 10
m) exhibit thermal stratification.
• During warmer periods of the year, the surface waters are heated, largely by
solar radiation, more rapidly than the heat is distributed by mixing. As the
surface waters are warmed and become less dense, the relative thermal
resistance to mixing increases.
• The lake becomes stratified in three zones
– Epilimnion: an upper stratum of less dense, more or less uniformly warm,
circulating, and fairly turbulent water.
– Hypolimnion: the water stratum of more dense, cooler, and relatively
quiescent water lying below the metalimnion.
– Metalimnion: the transitional stratum of marked thermal change between
the epilimnion and hypolimnion.
• The thermocline is the plane of surface of maximum rate of decrease of
temperature in the metalimnion.
• Nutricline is the plane of surface of maximum rate of decrease of nutrients .
• Phytoplanktons are present with a paradoxical situation and unless mixing
occurs, productivity is low
 5.2a: Role of Temperature in mixing water

Types of Stratification:
1. Amictic Lakes
2. Cold Monomictic Lakes
3. Dimictic Lakes
4. Warm Monomictic lakes
5. Oligomictic lakes
6. Polymictic Lakes
5.2a: Role of Temperature in Aquatic Ecosystem
 Paradox of stratification: Light
• Light: Photosynthesis is only possible when light
reaching the algal cell is above a certain intensity
– PAR(400-700nm) is responsible for the bulk of photosynthesis
and UVR (200-400nm) is considered to inhibit this process.
• Light penetration is attenuated due to turbidity caused
by
– TSS and TDS
• Water column is divided into euphotic and aphotic
zones
• Light intensity at which productivity exactly equals respiration is
the compensation intensity; the depth at which this occurs is the
compensation depth
Primary Production Limitations

• light
• nutrients

Photosynthesis Photic Zone

No Photosynthesis
Aphotic Zone
Depth profile of light
Different temperature and nutrient profiles
 Factors affecting Primary Productivity
2. Dissolved salts and Nutrients
• nutrients: major inorganic nutrients that are required by
phytoplankton are nitrogen and phosphorus (diatoms and
dinoflagellates also require silica); all of these nutrients occur
in small amounts and are thus limiting factors for primary
productivity;
• P,N and Si are principal nutrients
• Based on the nutrient concentrations lakes are classified as:
– oligotrophic regions have low concentrations of essential
nutrients and therefore low productivity
– eutrophic waters contain high nutrients and support high
numbers of phytoplankton
– mesotrophic waters have nutrient levels between those of
the two extremes
– Hyper-eutrophic
– Ultra-oligotrophic
Dystrophic lakes: highly acidic lakes
 Phytoplankton biomass and productivity in inland aquatic
habitats, Likens, 1975 in Barnes and Mann 2001

Aquatic NPP Phytplankton TP(ppb) IN(ppb) TIS(ppm)

habitats (gm dry wt/sq. biomass
m/yr) (mg dry
wt/cu.m)
Oligotrophic 15- 50 20-200 1-5 1-200 2-20
Mesotrophic 50-150 200-600 5-10 200-400 10-200
Eutrophic 150-500 600-10000 10-30 300-650 100-500
Saline 500-2500 10000-20000 30-100 400-5000 1000-150000
Dissolved Oxygen (DO) profiles

In addition to using light and dark bottles to characterize aquatic

metabolism, we can use DO probes to characterize changes in oxygen
with depth.

In lakes that are deep, this could be interesting for detecting the zone
where the photosynthesis : respiration ratio is low, and the lake flips from
a net autotrophic to net heterotrophic system (See figure)
 Oxygen depth profile of lakes
• Depth profile of oxygen is regulated by physical processing
during summer stratification.
• Increase in temperature results into decrease in epilimnetic
oxygen conc.
– Orthograde profile
• Decrease in temperature in metalimnion and hypolimnion
results in increased oxygen conc.
• Oxygen conc. is depleted rapidly by oxidative processes
resulting into anaerobic hypolimnion.
• Hypolimnion is depleted of oxygen in highly eutrophic lakes
after only a few weeks of stratification and remains anaerobic
throughout the stratification
– Clinograde profile
 The oxygen content of freshwaters
1. Rapid decay of massive littoral flora or phytoplankton
during summer can result in marked reductions in
oxygen content in small shallow lakes to the demise of
many animals (called summerkill).
2. Under ice and snow cover where light is severely
attenuated, photosynthetic augmentation of oxygen
content can be eliminated. Respiratory oxidative
consumption can reduce oxygen to levels insufficient to
support organisms, and result in winterkill. Winterkill
conditions are common in shallow, productive
temperate lakes.
Dissolved Oxygen is essential to the respiratory metabolism of most aquatic
organisms.
Solubility of oxygen in water decreases as temperature increases.
The solubility of oxygen decreases somewhat with lower atmospheric pressures
at higher altitudes, and increases with greater hydrostatic pressures at depth
within the lake.
Oxygen solubility decreases exponentially with increases in salt content.
In rivers, Oxygen concentration is subject to marked variations spatially as well as
temporally.
In backwater areas of reduced velocity and turbulence, residence time of water
are longer and allow for greater alterations of oxygen content either through
photosynthetic enrichment or respiratory enrichment.
Photosynthetic algae and macrophytes can increase the oxygen concentration on
diurnal basis particularly in relatively sluggish streams and rivers
Productivity varies TEMPORALLY and
SPATIALLY:
• generally highest over continental shelves; over
the shelf itself it is highest just offshore
• seasonality more pronounced at high latitudes
• at mid latitudes, productivity peaks both spring
and fall.
• Amount of light varies with latitude; it decreases
from the equator towards the poles
– Polar regions: a single pulse of phytoplankton abundance
occurs during the summer when light becomes sufficient
for a net increase in primary productivity
– Temperate latitudes: primary productivity is generally
maximal in spring and autumn when the combination of
available light and high nutrient concentrations allow
plankton blooms to occur
– Tropics: intense surface heating produces a permanent
thermocline so phytoplankton are nutrient-limited year
round and there are only small fluctuations in primary
productivity
 Primary Production
biomass

zooplankton
phytoplankton

Winter Spring Summer Fall

North Atlantic- temperate climate

 Arctic

zooplankton
phytoplankton

Winter Spring Summer Fall

Table 1. Average net primary production and biomass of aquatic
habitats. Data from R.H. Whittaker and G.E. Likens, Human Ecol. 1:
357-369 (1973).

Habitat Net primary

Production
(g C/m2/yr)
Coral Reefs 2000
Kelp Bed 1900
Estuaries 1800
Seagrass Beds 1000
Mangrove Swamp 500
Lakes & streams 500
Continental Shelf 360
Upwelling 250
Open ocean 50
 Assignment
• Definition:
– Thermocline
– Nutricline
– Chemocline
• Presentation:
– N, P, S cycles in aquatic ecosystems
• Distinguish between
– Orthograde profile and clinograde profile