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Carbohydrate fluctuations, gas vacuolation, and vertical migration of scum‐forming cyanobacteria in fishponds 1
Author(s) -
van Rijn Jaap,
Shilo Moshe
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1985.30.6.1219
Subject(s) - diel vertical migration , cyanobacteria , nitrogen , oscillatoria , sediment , geology , environmental chemistry , botany , chemistry , biology , oceanography , geomorphology , paleontology , organic chemistry , bacteria
Natural populations of the scum‐forming cyanobacteria Oscillatoria, Spirulina, and Microcystis showed a diel vertical migration pattern in fishponds. This migration was governed by two factors, light and nitrogen. Light penetrates only into the upper layers of these shallow waterbodies, while combined nitrogen is detectable only in the pond sediment. Migration between these two layers was correlated with cellular carbohydrate accumulation at the top layer and its degradation at the bottom. Gas‐vacuole collapse was not mediated by turgor pressure and gas vesicles re‐formed at an extremely slow rate. Thus it seems likely that a change in ballast due to carbohydrate loading at the lighted surface and unloading at the dark, nitrogen‐rich bottom actively influences vertical migration.