Chapter 2.

1
Structure & Productivity of Aquatic Ecosystems

• Aquatic Ecosystems consist of entire drainage

basins.
• The nutrient and organic-matter content of
drainage from the catchment area is modified in
each of the terrestrial, stream, and wetland-
littoral components, as well as in the lake or
reservoir per se.
• Productivity is generally low to intermediate in
the terrestrial components, highest in the
wetland interface region between land and
water, and lowest in the open-water portion of
the lake.
 Chapter 2.1
Aquatic ecosystems
Chapter 1 has focused on the kinds of organisms and classification
systems. Today we begin a discussion of production processes and
nutrient cycling.

When we talk about "production" we are talking about either primary

production, secondary production, or tertiary production.

Primary production processes deal with photosynthesis, that is the

creation of plant biomass from carbon dioxide, water, and radiant
energy.
Secondary production is the production of small animals that feed on
the primary producers.
Tertiary production is the production of larger fish and also animals
that feed on the lower trophic level (secondary producers).
 Primary Production
• amount of plant tissue built up by process of photosynthesis over time is
primary production

• majority of primary production is accomplished by small, dispersed pelagic

phytoplankton rather than plants (plants only account for 5-10% of total marine
productivity)

• the total amount of organic material produced by photosynthesis represents

gross primary production

• as a portion of the organic material produced by photosynthesis is utilized in

cellular respiration, any excess production is referred to as net primary
production; represents amount of organic material available to support
consumers, nonphotosynthetic protists, and decomposers

• standing stock refers to the number of organisms per unit area or per unit
volume of water at the moment of sampling.

• biomass is defined as the total weight (total numbers X average weight) of all
organisms in a given area or volume; this measure is used in preference to
standing stock because phytoplankton vary in size and total numbers of all
organisms are not as ecologically meaningful as estimates of their biomass
 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).

Transparent Bottle Opaque Bottle

Initial, 6AM 0.288 0.288
Final, 9AM 0.292 0.282
Difference +0.004 -0.006
Gross Productivity 0.010 millimoles O2/liter
Net Productivity 0.004 millimoles O2/liter

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.
 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)
 Factors affecting Primary Productivity

• Light: Photosynthesis is only possible when

light reaching the algal cell is above a certain
intensity; light is influenced by a number of
meteorological features such as clouds, dust,
etc., reducing the amount of available light; it
is also influenced by the water itself due to
reflection, scattering by suspended water
particles, and absorption of various
wavelengths (reds and violets are absorbed
within first few meters; greens and blues are
absorbed less rapidly and may penetrate
farther)
– amount of photosynthesis increases with light
intensity up to a maximum value known as
Pmax, which is specific for each species;
beyond this value, the rate of photosynthesis
declines due to photoinhibition -- light intensity
at which productivity exactly equals respiration
is the compensation intensity; the depth at
which this occurs is the compensation depth
 Factors affecting Primary Productivity: Light
• 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
 Factors affecting Primary Productivity : Nutrients

• nutrients: major inorganic nutrients that are required

by phytoplankton are nitrogen and phosphorus
(diatoms and dinoflagellates also required silica); all of
these nutrients occur in small amounts and are thus
limiting factors for primary productivity; each species of
phytoplankton has a particular response to different
concentrations of limiting nutrients and each has a
maximum growth rate
– 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
Factors affecting Primary Productivity : Hydrographic Conditions

• hydrographic conditions: factors that move water

masses around in the oceans (currents, upwellings,
and diffusion); upwelling occurs when the surface
water moves away from shore and is replaced by
nutrient-rich deep water brought to the surface;
divergence of currents also brings up deeper nutrient-
rich water; vertical mixing brings up nutrients and
pushes down phytoplankton (as long as it doesn't push
it down beyond the photic zone, the phytoplankton will
be able to continue photosynthesizing)
– amount of wind mixing (which brings nutrients up to the
surface) increases from the tropics to the polar regions
– thus the abundance of light and nutrients forms an inverse
relationship which determines the pattern of phytoplankton
production in different latitudes
 Lake Ecosystem Concept
• The lake is separated into the open-water pelagial zone and the
littoral zone.
• The littoral zone consist of the bottom of the lake basin
colonized by macrovegetation.
• The sediments free of vegetation that lie below the pelagial zone
are referred to as the profoundal zone.
• The littoriprofoundal zone is the transitional area of the
sediments occupied by scattered benthic algae.
Lake Ecosystem Concept : Zonation and Terminology
1. Various terms have been applied to groups of organisms living within the lake
zones.
Plankton are small organisms with no or limited powers of locomotion that are
suspended in water.
Nekton are organisms with relatively good swimming powers of locomotion.
Periphyton are bacteria and algae growing attached to substrata.

Among the algal communities, one can

readily differentiate the following;
•Epipelic mean algae growing on
sediments.
•Epilithic algae grow on rock or stone
surfaces.
•Epiphytic algae grows on macrophytic
surfaces
•Epizooic algae grows on or moving
through sand
•The word psammon referes to all
organisms growing or moving through
sand.
 Conclusions
Aquatic ecosystems provide a wide range of benefits to people. As efforts
to improve water productivity intensify, there is growing recognition that
future investments in water management need to consider how to sustain
these ecosystems and the benefits they provide.

In order to maintain the productivity of aquatic ecosystems and improve

dependent livelihoods, policies, institutions and governance
arrangements that foster sustainable and equitable use of these
resources need to be developed.

In particular, the full value of the range of aquatic ecosystems within

different river basins, the resources they provide, and the trade-offs
among different uses, need to be better understood; the environmental
flows required to sustain aquatic ecosystems and their values need to be
quantified; and ways to improve water productivity by incorporating
aquatic ecosystems need to be identified.