Freshwater autotrophic picoplankton: a review

By C. Callieri, J. Stockner. 2002

278 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Autotrophic picoplankton (APP) are distributed worldwide and are ubiquitous in all types of lakes of varying trophic state. APP are major players in carbon production in all aquatic ecosystems, including extreme environments such as cold ice-covered and/or warm tropical lakes and thermal springs. They often form the base of complex microbial food webs, becoming prey for a multitude of protozoan and micro-invertebrate grazers, that effectively channel APP carbon to higher trophic levels including fish. In this review we examine the existing literature on freshwater autotrophic picoplankton, setting recent findings and current ecological issues within an historic framework, and include a description of the occurrence and distribution of both single-cell and colonial APP (picocyanobacteria) in different types of lakes. In this review we place considerable emphasis on methodology and ecology, including sampling, counting, preservation, molecular techniques, measurement of photosynthesis, and include extensive comment on their important role in microbial food webs. The model outlined by Stockner of an increase of APP abundance and biomass and a decrease of its relative importance with the increase of phosphorus concentration in lakes has been widely accepted, and only recently confirmed in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Nevertheless the relationship which drives the APP presence and importance in lakes of differing trophic status appears with considerable variation so we must conclude that the success of APP in oligotrophic lakes worldwide is not a certainty but highly probable.

Subfields: Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ba64353992834361aa34fc9e8badd9b00bc29ff2

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Citations in the corpus

Phytoplankton ecology of Lake Kivu (eastern Africa) (2006, background): “As expected, contrary to temperate lakes where picophytoplankton has a marked seasonal distribution cycle ( Callieri and Stockner, 2002; Belykh and Sorokovikova, 2003), the autotrophic picoplankton (APP) was abundant at all seasons in lakes Tanganyika and Kivu (and probably in other East African ol”
Chlorophyll a concentration across a trophic gradient of lakes: An estimator of phytoplankton biomass? (2008, unknown): “2c, p. 72, in Callieri and Stockner, 2002).”
Abundance and distribution of picoplankton in tropical, oligotrophic Lake Kivu, eastern Africa (2008, background): “The importance of photosynthetic and heterotrophic picoplankton in aquatic food webs has been emphasized in the last decades (e.g. Pomeroy, 1974; Azam et al., 1983; Stockner & Antia, 1986; Weisse, 1993; Fogg, 1995; Bell & Kalff, 2001; Callieri & Stockner, 2002).”
Trophic upgrading of autotrophic picoplankton by the heterotrophic nanoflagellate Paraphysomonas sp. (2006, background): “Autotrophic picoplankton (APP) accounts for the bulk of primary production in large parts of open oceans and in many oligotrophic lakes (Weisse 1993; Callieri and Stockner 2002).”
Flow-cytometric mapping provides novel insights into the seasonal and vertical distributions of freshwater autotrophic picoplankton (2003, background): “Peak abundances of EAP are normally observed during spring isothermal mixing/early thermal stratification (summarized by Callieri & Stockner 2002).”
Picophytoplankton in Freshwater Ecosystems: The Importance of Small-Sized Phototrophs (2008, background): “1-28 In a survey covering 43 lakes and ponds, Camacho et al. (2003) found that picocyanobacterial development was favoured by the stability of the vertical structure of the lake (i.”
Variability in the provision and function of mucilage in phytoplankton: facultative responses to the environment (2007, background): “…being either short rods (Synechococcus), ellipsoids (Cyanobium) or sphaeroids dividing in one or two planes (Cyanothece) but the similarity of each to the cells of the colonial species of Aphanocapsa, Cyanodictyon and Synechocystis has been noted before (Komárek, 1996; Callieri & Stockner, 2002).”
A novel model for cyanobacteria bloom formation: the critical role of anoxia and ferrous iron (2014, background): “Freshwater picoplankton (which consists of bacteria-sized cyanobacteria and eukaryotic species) make up 0–90% of algal abundance in oligotrophic systems (V€or€os et al., 1998; Bell & Kalff, 2001; Callieri & Stockner, 2002; Callieri et al., 2007).”