Virtual Special Issue: JPR goes Tropical
Plankton and Sustainable Development Goals - JPR goes Topical
The Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted in the UN summit in September 2015, include the goal #14 – Life Below Water – dealing with the need to reduce marine pollution and effects of ocean acidification, to promote sustainable management of marine ecosystems and to increase scientific knowledge to preserve biodiversity (among other things). The major threats to Life Below Water - climate change, land-based and maritime pollution and overfishing (to mention a few) – have increased in intensity even during the past five years, particularly in tropical areas (Halpern et al. 2015). However, our knowledge of tropical areas – among other things the plankton in tropical areas - is limited (Wernberg et al. 2012), which makes it difficult (read: impossible) to predict the effects that multiple anthropogenic stressors will have on these ecosystems. Considering that fisheries are the primary livelihood for ca. one billion people living largely in developing countries (UN FAO), research on tropical plankton, food-web interactions and anthropogenic-forcing should feature high in our priorities list.
This special virtual issue collects tropical plankton papers published in JPR during the last four decades. Most of these 31 papers represent studies dealing with seasonal dynamics and environmental forcing, or physiology, behaviour and species interactions in plankton originating from widely different tropical environments. These studies represent substantial knowledge of the functioning of these diverse tropical ecosystems, including the effects of meteorological factors on the species dynamics, predator-prey interactions in tropical lakes and diurnal patterns of reproduction and vertical migration. Nevertheless, predicting responses of tropical plankton to anthropogenic stressors, or how these might differ from the responses of temperate plankton, does not seem possible based on the JPR contributions. In general, tropical studies only represent a small part of JPR publications, which in addition tend to be scattered between different environments - in the present selection ranging from man-made lagoons and flood plains to coastal ecosystems and coral reefs. Notably, controlled laboratory studies which form a bulk of temperate and arctic plankton studies, are at present largely absent from the tropical contributions!
As plankton enthusiasts we know that nothing is as important for the major ecosystem services of the ocean, fisheries production and carbon sequestration, than plankton. Nonetheless, we are currently unable to predict the effects of multiple stressors on plankton and thus on these ecosystem services. We hope that this collection will inspire us all to place more focus on tropical plankton, perhaps using the framework suggested by Griffen et al. (2016), starting with mechanistic understanding, up-scaling the mechanistic understanding of the individual to populations, and including the ecosystem context. Studies comparing tropical and non-tropical systems, such as Kruk et al. (2017) in the present collection, could be one way to reveal the properties which might make tropical systems more or less vulnerable for anthropogenic stressors – which could be a key contribution of plankton studies to the sustainable management of Life Below Water.
References
Griffen, B.D., Belgrad B.A., Cannizzo Z.J., Knotts E.R., and Hancock E.R. (2016) Rethinking our approach to multiple stressor in marine environments. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 543: 273-281.
Halpern, B.S., Frazier, M., Potapenko, J., Casey, K.S., Koenig, K., Longo, C., Stewart Lowndes, J., Cotton Rockwood, R., Selig, E.R., Selkoe, K.A., and Walbridge, S. (2015) Spatial and temporal changes in cumulative human impacts on the world’s ocean. Nat. Com. 6: 1-7.
Wernberg, T., Smale, D.A., and Thomsen, M.S. (2012) A decade of climate change experiments on marine organisms: procedures, patterns and problems. Glob. Change Biol. 18: 1491-1498.
Section 1. Seasonal dynamics and response to a changing environment
Phytoplankton:
Phytoplankton size fractions in a tropical neritic ecosystem near Kingston, Jamaica
Russell R. Hopcroft and John C. Roff
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 12, Issue 5, 1 January 1990, Pages 1069–1088
Effects of a cyclone on coral reef phytoplankton biomass, primary production and composition (Moorea Island, French Polynesia)
B. Delesalle, M. Pichon, M. Frankignoulle, and J.-P. Gattuso
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 15, Issue 12, 1 January 1993, Pages 1413–1423
Dynamics and size structure of phytoplankton in the coastal waters of Singapore
Karina Yew-Hoong Gin, Xiaohua Lin, and Sheng Zhang
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 22, Issue 8, 1 August 2000, Pages 1465–1484
Photosynthetic picoplankton in Lake Tanganyika: biomass distribution patterns with depth, season and basin
Stephane Stenuite, Anne-Laure Tarbe, Hugo Sarmento, Fernando Unrein, Samuel Pirlot, Danny Sinyinza, Sophie Thill, Mélanie Lecomte, Bruno Leporcq, Josep M. Gasol, and Jean-Pierre Descy
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 31, Issue 12, 1 December 2009, Pages 1531–1544
How important can the presence/absence of macrophytes be in determining phytoplankton strategies in two tropical shallow reservoirs with different trophic status?
Bárbara Medeiros Fonseca and Carlos Eduardo De Mattos Bicudo
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 32, Issue 1, 1 January 2010, Pages 31–46
Phytoplankton assemblages in two compartmentalized coastal tropical lagoons (Carretas-Pereyra and Chantuto-Panzacola, Mexico)
Francisco Varona-Cordero, Francisco José Gutiérrez-Mendieta, and Maria Esther Meave del Castillo
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 32, Issue 9, 1 September 2010, Pages 1283–1299
Does environmental heterogeneity explain temporal β diversity of small eukaryotic phytoplankton? Example from a tropical eutrophic coastal lagoon
Catharina Alves-de-Souza, Tatiane S. Benevides, Juliana B. O. Santos, Peter Von Dassow, Laure Guillou, and Mariângela Menezes
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 39, Issue 4, 1 July 2017, Pages 698–714
Zooplankton:
Composition and seasonality of the zooplankton community of Lake Valencia, Venezuela
James F. Saunders, III and William M. Lewis, Jr
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 10, Issue 5, 1 January 1988, Pages 957–985
Factors regulating cladoceran dynamics in a Venezuelan floodplain lake
Saran Twombly and William M. Lewis, Jr
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 11, Issue 2, 1 January 1989, Pages 317–333
Zooplankton abundance and evidence for its reduction by macrophyte mats in two Orinoco floodplain lakes
Stephen K. Hamilton, Suzanne J. Sippel, William M. Lewis, Jr, and James F. Saunders, III
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 12, Issue 2, 1 January 1990, Pages 345–363
Biomass and production of the major dominant crustacean zooplankton in a tropical Rift Valley lake, Awasa, Ethiopia
Seyoum Mengestou and C.H. Fernando
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 13, Issue 4, 1 January 1991, Pages 831–851
Production of tropical larvaceans in Kingston Harbour, Jamaica: are we ignoring an important secondary producer?
Russell R. Hopcroft and John C. Roff
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 20, Issue 3, 1 January 1998, Pages 557–569
Assemblage of Ciliated Protozoan Community in a Polluted and Non-polluted Environment in a Tropical Lake of Central Himalaya: Lake Naini Tal, India
Udyog Shukla and P. K. Gupta
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 23, Issue 6, 1 June 2001, Pages 571–584
The response of zooplankton assemblages to variations in the water quality of four man-made lakes in semi-arid northeastern Brazil
Wanessa Sousa, José Luiz Attayde, Elinez Da Silva Rocha, and Eneida Maria Eskinazi-Sant'Anna
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 30, Issue 6, 1 June 2008, Pages 699–708
Patterns of zooplankton population synchrony in a tropical reservoir
Sara Lodi, Luiz Felipe Machado Velho, Priscilla Carvalho, and Luis Mauricio Bini
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 36, Issue 4, 1 July 2014, Pages 966–977
Changes in cladoceran assemblages from tropical high mountain lakes during periods of recent climate change
Andrew L. Labaj, Neal Michelutti, and John P. Smol
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 39, Issue 2, 1 March 2017, Pages 211–219
Section 2. Physiology, behavior and species interactions
Phytoplankton and the microbial loop:
Nitrate and ammonium uptake by plankton in an Amazon River floodplain lake
T.R. Fisher, K.M. Morrissey, P.R. Carlson, L.F. Alves, and J.M. Melack
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 10, Issue 1, 1 January 1988, Pages 7–29
Nutrient limitation of autotrophic and mixotrophic phytoplankton in a temperate and tropical humic lake gradient
Carina Pålsson and Wilhelm Granéli
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 26, Issue 9, 1 September 2004, Pages 1005–1014
Heterotrophic utilization of extracellular products of phytoplankton in a tropical estuary
Helga do R. Gomes, A. Pant, J.I. Goes, and A.H. Parulekar
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 13, Issue 3, 1 January 1991, Pages 487–498
Zooplankton:
Zooplankton growth rates: diel egg production in the copepods Oithona , Euterpina and Corycaeus from tropical waters
Russell R. Hopcroft and John C. Roff
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 18, Issue 5, 1 May 1996, Pages 789–803
Diurnal residence of the larger stages of the calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa in the anoxic monimolimnion of a tropical meromictic lake in New Guinea
Luc De Meester and Wim Vyverman
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 19, Issue 4, 1 April 1997, Pages 425–434
Feeding of tropical cladocerans ( Moina micrura , Diaphanosoma excisum ) and rotifer ( Brachionus calyciflorus) on natural phytoplankton: effect of phytoplankton size–structure
Marc Pagano
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 30, Issue 4, 1 April 2008, Pages 401–414
Biological interactions in the plankton community of a tropical eutrophic reservoir: is the phytoplankton controlled by zooplankton?
Gabriela von Rückert and Alessandra Giani
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 30, Issue 10, 1 October 2008, Pages 1157–1168
Whale sharks target dense prey patches of sergestid shrimp off Tanzania
Christoph A. Rohner, Amelia J. Armstrong, Simon J. Pierce, Clare E. M. Prebble, E. Fernando Cagua, Jesse E. M. Cochran, Michael L. Berumen, and Anthony J. Richardson
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 37, Issue 2, 1 March 2015, Pages 352–362
Section 3. Cyanobacteria:
Spatial and temporal variability in cyanobacterial populations controlled by physical processes
M. Bormans, P. W. Ford, and L. Fabbro
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 27, Issue 1, 1 January 2005, Pages 61–70
Carbon isotopic composition of Trichodesmium spp. colonies off Bermuda: effects of colony mass and season
Dan Tchernov and Fred Lipschultz
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 30, Issue 1, 1 January 2008, Pages 21–31
Free-living heterocystous cyanobacteria in the tropical marginal seas of the western North Pacific
Sing-How Tuo, Yuh-Ling Lee Chen, Houng-Yung Chen, and Tien-Yi Chen
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 39, Issue 3, 1 May 2017, Pages 404–422
Growth and survival responses of a tropical Daphnia (Daphnia lumholtzi ) to cell-bound microcystins
Ronald Semyalo, Thomas Rohrlack, and Petter Larsson
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 31, Issue 8, 1 August 2009, Pages 827–835
A comparative study on the ability of tropical micro-crustaceans to feed and grow on cyanobacterial diets
Rocio Fernandez, S. Nandini, and S.S.S. Sarma
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 34, Issue 8, 1 August 2012, Pages 719–731
An isotopic analysis of the phytoplankton–zooplankton link in a highly eutrophic tropical reservoir dominated by cyanobacteria
Yeshiemebet Major, Demeke Kifle, Georg H. Niedrist, and Ruben Sommaruga
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 39, Issue 2, 1 March 2017, Pages 220–231
Section 4. Geographic trends in ecosystem properties:
Functional redundancy increases towards the tropics in lake phytoplankton
Carla Kruk, Angel M. Segura, Luciana S. Costa, Gissell Lacerot, Sarian Kosten, Edwin T. H. M. Peeters, Vera L. M. Huszar, Nestor Mazzeo, and Marten Scheffer
Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 39, Issue 3, 1 May 2017, Pages 518–530
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