Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2006ND136B

Top-down and Bottom-up Effects on the Abundance of Periphyton in Shallow Lakes

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2007 Start Date: 2006-11-01 End Date: 2007-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $2,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $4,000

Principal Investigators: Malcolm Butler

Project Summary: Much evidence points to nutrients as a cause of high periphyton biomass, just as nutrient loading enhances planktonic algae. Fish presence in a shallow basin may also favor increased algae, both planktonic and periphytic. Periphyton is detrimental to macrophytes, and ultimately may contribute to a basin shifting from the clear-water state to the less valuable turbid state. We need to better understand what controls periphyton, and the role it may play in shifts from the clear-water state to the turbid-water state in shallow lakes within the PPR. This study is designed to sample the abundance and composition of species involved in the fish-invertebrate-periphyton-macrophyte trophic cascade, along with other variables (nutrients, turbidity, and phytoplankton) to identify factors influencing periphyton biomass in shallow prairie lakes. This study will provide better understanding of interactions contolling to periphyton within shallow lake ecosystems