Phytoplankton Diversity in New York Lakes Ryan Butryn and Rick Naro

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

Chlorophyll-a Results

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

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 Divisions

Quadricoccus euryhalinicus

Catlin Phytoplankton Genera

Oneida Phytoplankton Genera

Onondaga Phytoplankton Genera

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