Freshwater Plankton Ecology For Monitoring, Food Webs Model And Management

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

• Student is acquainted with concepts of food webs in lakes and methods of study and assessment of autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms in microbial loop.• He know the microbial techniques in the evaluation of water quality.• Understand relations between components of food webs and can use them in management of lakes.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Syllabus

Weeks 1 to 5 (Lecture, 2h) - Week 1:Plankton ecology and the effect of size. Week 2:Plankton processes and the environment. Week 3:Food webs and microbial loop. Week 4:The autotrophic and heterotrophic picoplankton in trophic gradient of the lakes. Week 5:Sampling methods for plankton - typical plankton designs. Week 6:Water collection (field activities, 8h) on Lake Strzeszyńskie to collect microbial communities in the pelagic zone of the deepest part of the lake. Weeks 7-11 (Laboratory, 3h): Diversity within individual plankton compartments due to size, trophic and taxonomic affiliation, and between the surface and bottom layer of lake water. Weeks 12-14 (Seminar, 3h): The plankton for assessment and its use as a tool for monitoring water quality. Exemples of trophic models. Analyzing and interpreting results for effective management decision-making.Week 15 (3h): Presentation of student projects.

Reading list

Reynolds C.S. 2006. The ecology of phytoplankton. Ecology, biodiversity and conservation. Cambridge University Press, pp. 535; Sandgren C.D. 1988. Growth and reproductive strategies of freshwater phytoplankton. Cambridge University Press. New Rochelle, New York, Melbourne, Sydney, pp. 442; Sorokin Y.I. 1999. Aquatic microbial ecology. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, pp. 248; Suthers I.M., Rissik D. 2008. Plankton. A guide to their ecology and monitoring for water quality. CSIRO Publishing, Australia, pp. 256