The role of sediments in the phosphorus cycle in Lake Lugano. II. Seasonal and spatial variability of microbiological processes at the sediment-water interface

P, Fe, Mn, and S species were analyzed in water samples from the sediment-water interface collected at four seasonally different times during the course of a year at two sampling sites in the southern basin of Lake Lugano (Lago di Lugano). The results reveal the strong influence of the biogeochemical processes in the sediment on the chemical composition of the lake water above. Consumption of oxygen and nitrate under oxic to microoxic conditions in the water column as well as sequential release of reduced manganese and iron under anoxic conditions was observed as a direct or indirect consequence of microbially mediated degradation of organic matter. The seasonal pattern observed for the release and the retainment of dissolved reduced iron and manganese correlates well with the one for dissolved phosphate. Iron, manganese and phosphorus cycling are coupled tightly in these sediments. Both sediment types act as sinks for hydrogen sulfide and sulfate. An inner-sedimentary sulfur cycle is proposed to couple iron, manganese and phosphorus cycling with the degradation of organic matter. Nutrient cycling at the sediment-water interface might thus be driven by a microbially regulated electron pumping mechanism. The results contribute to a better understanding of the role of sediment processes in the lake's internal phosphorus cycle and its seasonal dynamics.     

Deglaciation and catchment ontogeny in coastal south‐west Greenland: implications for terrestrial and aquatic carbon cycling

Here we present Holocene organic carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, carbon isotope ratio and macrofossil data from a small freshwater lake near Sisimiut in south‐west Greenland. The lake was formed c. 11 cal ka BP following retreat of the ice sheet margin and is located above the marine limit in this area. The elemental and isotope data suggest a complex deglaciation history of interactions between the lake and its catchment, reflecting glacial retreat and post‐glacial hydrological flushing probably due to periodic melting of local remnant glacial ice and firn areas between 11 and 8.5 cal ka BP. After 8.5 cal ka BP, soil development and associated vegetation processes began to exert a greater control on terrestrial–aquatic carbon cycling. By 5.5 cal ka BP, in the early Neoglacial cooling, the sediment record indicates a change in catchment–lake interactions with consistent δ¹³C while C/N exhibits greater variability. The period after 5.5 cal ka BP is also characterized by higher organic C accumulation in the lake. These changes (total organic carbon, C/N, δ¹³C) are most likely the result of increasing contribution (and burial) of terrestrial organic matter as a result of enhanced soil instability, as indicated by an increase in Cenococcum remains, but also Sphagnum and Empetrum. The impact of glacial retreat and relatively subdued mid‐ to late Holocene climate variation at the coast is in marked contrast to the greater environmental variability seen in inland lakes closer to the present‐day ice sheet margin. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

长江口几种优势桡足类对微型浮游动物的摄食研究

利用现场海水培养实验,结合浮游动物网样数据,研究长江口邻近海域几种优势桡足类(中华哲水蚤、背针胸刺水蚤、太平洋纺锤水蚤和精致真刺水蚤)对微型浮游动物的摄食影响。结果表明,精致真刺水蚤虽然属于肉食性种类,但几乎不摄食微型浮游动物;其余三种杂食性桡足类中华哲水蚤、背针胸刺水蚤和太平洋纺锤水蚤对微型浮游动物(纤毛虫+异养甲藻)的摄食率分别为0.66、0.09和0.59μg C/(ind·d),分别占其日总摄食量的29%、24%和37%。其中,异养甲藻在初始生物量和对桡足类饵料贡献上分别占整个微型浮游动物的30%和28%,是微型浮游动物中一个重要的组成类群。中华哲水蚤对微型浮游动物的摄食率与初始食物浓度有显著的正相关关系,并且对体长20μm纤毛虫的清滤率要明显高于对体长20μm的纤毛虫(P0.01)的清滤率,表明其偏好摄食较大个体的食物。通过Chesson选择性指数显示,尽管微型浮游动物在生物量上远小于浮游植物,但桡足类能优先选择摄食微型浮游动物;进一步结合网采浮游动物数据,获得各站三种优势桡足类丰度平均占桡足类总丰度的77%,但它们对微型浮游动物现存生物量的摄食压力仅为0.8%,表明桡足类对微型浮游动物群落的下行控制作用并不明显,仍有大部分微型浮游动物生物量未通过摄食途径进入到桡足类群落中。     

Short-term effects of changes in water management on the limnological characteristics and zooplankton of a eutrophic Mediterranean coastal lagoon (NE Iberian Peninsula)

The Ter Vell (NE Iberian Peninsula) is a eutrophic coastal lagoon which has been flooded by the excess irrigation water and the agricultural runoff during the last decades. Between 1999 and 2003, restoration measures were applied to improve its water quality. At the same time, but independently, agricultural water management drastically reduced the freshwater inflow. The short-term effects of these management actions on the limnological characteristics of the lagoon were analysed by comparing two hydrological cycles, one before (1999/2000) and the other one after (2002/2003) the actions. The two cycles are illustrative of opposite situations in the hydrological functioning of coastal wetlands. In the first, the lagoon was exorheic, with prolonged flooding periods and a low residence time; in the second, it had a more endorheic character, with scarce water inputs and prolonged periods of confinement. Consequently, nitrogen inputs diminished and organic load and salinity increased as the internal loading and the accumulation effects became more relevant. These effects were actually caused by the drastic reduction in the freshwater inflow which prevented, in turn, the success of the restoration measures. The zooplankton community of the Ter Vell lagoon was not significantly altered by the hydrological change, at least in the short-term, and rotifers and cladocerans, mainly those species indicative of eutrophy, dominated the community.     

Radar Data Assimilation for the Simulation of Mesoscale Convective Systems

A heavy rainfall case related to Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs) over the Korean Peninsula was selected to investigate the impact of radar data assimilation on a heavy rainfall forecast. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) data assimilation system with tuning of the length scale of the background error covariance and observation error parameters was used to assimilate radar radial velocity and reflectivity data. The radar data used in the assimilation experiments were preprocessed using quality-control procedures and interpolated/thinned into Cartesian coordinates by the SPRINT/CEDRIC packages. Sensitivity experiments were carried out in order to determine the optimal values of the assimilation window length and the update frequency used for the rapid update cycle and incremental analysis update experiments. The assimilation of radar data has a positive influence on the heavy rainfall forecast. Quantitative features of the heavy rainfall case, such as the maximum rainfall amount and Root Mean Squared Differences (RMSDs) of zonal/meridional wind components, were improved by tuning of the length scale and observation error parameters. Qualitative features of the case, such as the maximum rainfall position and time series of hourly rainfall, were enhanced by an incremental analysis update technique. The positive effects of the radar data assimilation and the tuning of the length scale and observation error parameters were clearly shown by the 3DVAR increment.     

Variation of phytoplankton biomass and primary production in Daya Bay during spring and summer

Environmental factors, phytoplankton biomass (Chl a) and primary production of two water areas in Daya Bay (Dapeng'ao Bay and Aotou Bay) were investigated during the transition period from spring to summer. Chl a ranged from 3.20 to 13.62 and 13.43 to 26.49 mg m(-3) in Dapeng'ao Bay and Aotou Bay respectively, if data obtained during red tides are excluded. Primary production varied between 239.7 and 1001.4 mg Cm(-2) d(-1) in Dapeng'ao Bay. The regional distribution of Chl a and primary production were mostly consistent from spring to summer in both bays. Seasonal transition characters have been found in Daya Bay from spring to summer, including high values of DO, nitrate and silicate. Size structures of phytoplankton and its primary production do not change very much from spring to summer, with micro-phytoplankton dominating and contributing about 50% of the whole. In Daya Bay, phytoplankton is limited by nitrogen in spring, and by phosphate in summer. Artificial impacts are evident from high temperature effluent from nuclear power stations, aquaculture and sewage. During the investigation, a red tide occurred in Aotou Bay, with a maximum Chl a of 103.23 mgm(-3) at surface and primary production of 2721.9 mg Cm(-2) d(-1) in the red tide center. Raised water temperature and nutrient supply from land-sources help to stimulate annual red tides.     

Internal-wave-induced and double-diffusive nutrient fluxes to the nutrient-consuming surface layer in the oligotrophic subtropical North Atlantic

In the literature, an inconsistency exists between estimates of biotically-effected carbon export inferred from large-scale geochemical studies (Jenkins 1982; 47 gC m^–2 a^–1) and local measurements of turbulent nutrient supply (Lewis et al. 1986; 4 gC m^–2 a^–1) in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic. Nutrient supply to the upper ocean by turbulent mixing is reexamined using local standard oceanographic measurements and high-resolution vertical profiles of nutrients averaged over a large region directly comparable to that investigated by Jenkins (1982).Responsible Editor: Franciscus Colijn     

Vertical distribution of phosphorus and P-dissolving/decomposing bacteria in the sediment of Guanting reservoir

In this study, we determined pH, phosphorus content and the number of P-dis- solving/decomposing bacteria in relation to the depth in the sediment of Guanting reservoir in Beijing. The pH value was slightly increased from 8.0 in the surface to 8.5 in the bottle (69 cm in depth) of sediment. The highest P content, 1269 mg/kg, was detected in the 35 cm layer, followed by the 5 cm (993 mg/kg) and 69 cm (580 mg/kg) layers. The number of inorganic P-dissolving bacteria varied from 6(102 to 8(104 and the organic P-discomposing bacteria were from 1.9(103 to 6.3(104 per gram sediment in different depths, which were counted under 28℃ and 20℃ ( pH7.5 and 8.5. The number of P-dissolving/discomposing bacteria was directly correlated to the P content in each layer of sediments. The analysis of P-dissolving/decomposing ability of bacteria showed that some of these bacteria were also capable of accumulating P intracellularly. The intracellular P-accumulation was more efficient at lower temperature; in contrast, the activity of P-dissolving/decomposing was stronger at higher temperature. So the content of dissolved P in water body, or quality of water, could be affected by the change of temperature via the regulation of bacterial activity. On the basis of 16S rDNA sequencing, the 13 efficient P-dis- solving/decomposing bacteria were identified as Bacillus spp., Bacterium sp., Microbacterium sp., Paenibacillus sp. and Pseudomonas sp.     

Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIRS), a New Method to Infer Past Changes in Tree-line Position and TOC using Lake Sediment

This study tests the hypothesis that Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIRS) of lake sediments can be used to infer past changes in tree-line position and total organic carbon (TOC) content of lake water. A training set of 100 lakes from northern Sweden spanning a broad altitudinal and TOC gradient from 0.7 to 14.9 mg/l was used to assess whether vegetation zones and TOC can be modelled from FTIR spectra of surface sediments (0–1 cm) using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) regression. Preliminary results show that FTIRS of lake sediments can be used to reconstruct past changes in tree line and the TOC content of lake water, which is hardly surprising since FTIRS registers the properties of organic and minerogenic material derived from the water mass and the drainage area. The FTIRS model for TOC gives a root mean squared error (RMSECV) of calibration of 1.4 mg/l (10% of the gradient) assessed by internal cross-validation (CV) yielding an R_cv² of 0.64. This should be compared with a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and diatom transfer function for TOC from the same set of lakes, which have a R_cv² of 0.61 and 0.31, and RMSECV of 1.6 and 2.3 mg/l, respectively. The FTIRS-TOC model was applied to a Holocene sediment core from a tree-line lake and the results show similar trends as inferences from NIRS and pollen from the same core. Overall, the results indicate that changes in FTIR spectra from lake sediments reflect differences in catchment vegetation and TOC, and that FTIRS-models based on surface-sediment samples can be applied to sediment cores for retrospective analysis.