ESTONIAN ACADEMY
PUBLISHERS
eesti teaduste
akadeemia kirjastus
cover
Estonian Journal of Ecology
The pelagic food web in forest lakes affected by alkaline mining waste in NW Russia; pp. 214–228
PDF | doi: 10.3176/eco.2008.3.04

Authors
Ismo J. Holopainen, Anna-Liisa Holopainen, Eeva Huitu, Minna Rahkola-Sorsa, Priit Zingel
Abstract
The wastewaters of an iron mining company in NW Russia have changed the water quality in some forest lakes to be hard with a high pH, in contrast to the soft water and low pH in natural lakes. Two impacted lakes and a reference lake were sampled once in early August in three successive years for water quality, plankton communities, and fish. The concentrations of potassium, lithium, and sulphate were high in the impacted lakes. Total phosphorus was low (~ 10 µg L–1) in all lakes. The primary producers’ biomass and chlorophyll a content in the impacted lakes were high because of high densities of autotrophic picocyanobacteria (Synechococcus spp.). All planktonic communities showed a changed taxa composition and lower species richness. Zooplankton was predominantly Rotatoria in all the lakes. In the impacted lakes, Cladocera was represented by Bosmina, and Copepoda by small cyclopoids. The most obvious substance to be harmful to some planktonic species was potassium. The high pH and high mineral content of the water obviously lower both the toxicity and the bioavailability of heavy metals in the impacted lakes.
References

Aroviita, J., Hämäläinen, H. & Holopainen, I. J. 2006. Benthic macroinvertebrates in lakes affected by iron mining waste waters in the Kostomuksha area, northwest Russia. Verh. Int. Verein. Limnol., 29, 2039–2044.

Arvola, L., Eloranta, P., Järvinen, M., Keskitalo, J. & Holopainen, A.-L. 1999. Food webs of humic waters. Phytoplankton. In Limnology of Humic Waters (Keskitalo, J. & Eloranta, P., eds), pp. 137–171. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.

Beaver, J. R. & Crisman, T. L. 1989. Role of ciliated Protozoa in pelagic freshwater ecosystems. Microb. Ecol., 17, 111–136.
doi:10.1007/BF02011847

Bell, T. & Kalff, J. 2001. The contribution of picophytoplankton in marine and freshwater systems of different trophic status and depth. Limnol. Oceanogr., 46, 1243–1248.

Bergström, I., Heinänen, A. & Salonen, K. 1986. Comparison of acridine orange, acriflavine and bisbenzimide stains for enumeration of bacteria in clear and humic waters. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 51, 664–667.

Bertolo, A., Carignan, R., Magnan, P., Pinel-Alloul, B., Planas, D. & Garcia, E. 2005. Decoupling of pelagic and littoral food webs in oligotrophic Canadian Shield lakes. Oikos, 111, 534546.
doi:10.1111/j.0030-1299.2005.13930.x

Callieri, C. & Stockner, J. G. 2000. Picocyanobacterial success in oligotrophic lakes: Fact or fiction? J. Limnol., 59, 72–76.

Callieri, C. & Stockner, J. G. 2002. Freshwater autotrophic picoplankton: A review. J. Limnol., 61, 1–14.

Callieri, C., Karjalainen, S. A. & Passoni, S. 2002. Grazing by ciliates and heterotrophic nano­flagellates on picocyanobacteria in Lago Maggiore, Italy. J. Plankton Res., 24, 785796.
doi:10.1093/plankt/24.8.785

Chekryzheva, T. A. 1995. Phytoplankton in the Kenti River. In The Effect of Man-caused Effluents from Kostamus Mining Plant on Kenti-River System (Kukharev, V. I., ed.), pp. 68–79. Petrozavodsk (in Russian).

Holopainen, A.-L., Niinoja, R. & Rämö, A. 2003a. Seasonal succession, vertical distribution, and long-term variation of phytoplankton communities in two shallow forest lakes in eastern Finland. Hydrobiologia, 506–509, 237–245.
doi:10.1023/B:HYDR.0000008555.92238.91

Holopainen, I. J., Holopainen, A.-L., Hämäläinen, H., Rahkola-Sorsa, M., Tkatcheva, V. & Viljanen, M. 2003b. Effects of mining industry waste waters on a shallow lake ecosystem in Karelia, north-west Russia. Hydrobiologia, 506–509, 111–119.
doi:10.1023/B:HYDR.0000008554.28228.14

James, M. R., Burns, C. W. & Forsyth, D. J. 1995. Pelagic ciliated protozoa in two monomictic, southern temperate lakes of contrasting trophic state: Seasonal distribution and abundance. J. Plankton Res., 17, 1479–1500.
doi:10.1093/plankt/17.7.1479

Kalinkina, N. M., Kulikova, T. P., Morozov, A. K. & Vlasova, L. I. 2003. Causes of technogenic changes in a freshwater zooplanktonic community. Biol. Bull., 30, 627–632.
doi:10.1023/B:BIBU.0000007721.42795.21

Karjalainen, J., Rahkola, M., Viljanen, J., Andronikova, I. & Avinsky, V. 1995. Comparison of methods used in zooplankton sampling and counting in the joint Russian–Finnish evaluation of the trophic state of Lake Ladoga. Hydrobiologia, 322, 249–253.
doi:10.1007/BF00031836

Karjalainen, J., Holopainen, A.-L. & Huttunen, P. 1996. Spatial patterns and relationships between phytoplankton, zooplankton and water quality in the Saimaa lake system, Finland. Hydro­biologia, 322, 267–276.
doi:10.1007/BF00031839

Kukharev, V. I., Palshin, N. I. & Salo, J. A. 1995. General characteristics of Kenti–Kento Lake–River system. In The Effect of Man-caused Effluents from Kostamus Mining Plant on Kenti-River System (Kukharev, V. I., ed.), pp. 4–8. Petrozavodsk (in Russian).

Kurkilahti, M. & Rask, M. 1996. A comparative study of the usefulness and catchability of multimesh gillnets and gillnet series in sampling of perch (Perca fluviatilis L.) and roach (Rutilus rutilus L.). Fish. Res., 27, 243260.
doi:10.1016/0165-7836(95)00463-7

Lehman, J. T. 1976. Ecological and nutritional studies on Dinobryon Ehrenb.: Seasonal periodicity and the phosphate toxicity problem. Limnol. Oceanogr., 21, 646–658.

Lozovik, P. A., Markkanen, S.-L. & Regerand, T. 2001. Kalevalan piirin ja Kostamuksen alueen pintavedet ja kuormituksen vaikutus niihin. Petrozavodsk (in Finnish and in Russian).

Mehner, T., Hölker, F. & Kasprzak, P. 2005. Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of trophic variables in a deep lake as reflected by repeated singular samplings. Oikos, 108, 401–409.
doi:10.1111/j.0030-1299.2005.13338.x

Niinioja, R., Holopainen, A.-L., Hämäläinen, H., Heitto, L., Luotonen, H., Mononen, P. & Ramö, A. 2003. State of Lake Sysmäjärvi, Eastern Finland, after loading with mine water and municipal waste water for several decades. Hydrobiologia, 506–509, 773–780.
doi:10.1023/B:HYDR.0000008544.44848.fd

Pinel-Alloul, B., Bourbonnais, N. & Dutilleul, P. 1996. Among-lake and within-lake variations of autotrophic pico- and nanoplankton biomass in six Quebec lakes. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 53, 24332445.
doi:10.1139/cjfas-53-11-2433

Pomroy, A. J. 1984. Direct counting of bacteria preserved with Lugol iodine solution. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 47, 1191–1192.

Putt, M. & Stoecker, D. K. 1989. An experimentally determined carbon : volume ratio for marine “oligotrichous” ciliates from estuarine and coastal waters. Limnol. Oceanogr., 34, 1097–1103.

Rahkola, M., Karjalainen, J. & Avinsky, V. 1998. Individual weight estimates of zooplankton based on length–weight regressions in Lake Ladoga and Saimaa lake system. Nord. J. Freshwater Res., 74, 110–120.

Rask, M., Holopainen, A.-L., Karusalmi, A., Niinioja, R., Tammi, J., Arvola, L., Keskitalo, J., Blomquist, I., Heinimaa, S., Karppinen, C., Salonen, K. & Sarvala, J. 1998. An introduction to the limnology of the Finnish Integrated Monitoring lakes. Boreal Environ. Res., 3, 263–274.

Salonen, K., Sarvala, J., Hakala, I. & Viljanen, M.-L. 1976. The relation of energy and organic carbon in aquatic invertebrates. Limnol. Oceanogr., 21, 724–730.

Sarvala, J., Kankaala, P., Zingel, P. & Arvola, L. 1999. Zooplankton. In Limnology of Humid Waters (Keskitalo, J. & Eloranta, P., eds), pp. 173–191. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.

Tkatcheva, V., Hyvärinen, H., Kukkonen, J., Ryzhkov, L. P. & Holopainen, I. J. 2004. Toxic effects of mining effluents on fish gills in a subarctic lake system in NW Russia. Ecotoxicol. Environ. Safety, 57, 278–289.
doi:10.1016/S0147-6513(03)00079-4

Tulonen, T. 1993. Bacterial production in a mesohumic lake estimated from (14C)-leucine incorporation rate. Microb. Ecol., 26, 201–217.
doi:10.1007/BF00176953

Tulonen, T., Kankaala, P., Arvola, L. & Ojala, A. 2000. Growth and production of bacterioplankton in a deep mesohumic boreal lake. Arch. Hydrobiol., 147, 311–325.

Utermöhl, H. 1958. Zur Vervollkommnung der quantitativen Phytoplankton-Methodik. Mitteilungen / Int. Verein. Theor. Angew. Limnol., 9, 1–38.

Virtanen, K. & Markkanen, S.-L. 2000. Monitoring the Kostomuksha mining combine waste waters and water quality in the receiving water system 19901998. Mimeographed series of Kainuu Regional Environment Centre, 6, 3–28 (in Finnish, abstract in English).

Vlasova, L. 1998. Zooplankton in the area of the Kostomuksha. In Current State of Water Objects in the Republic of Karelia. Result of Monitoring, 1992–1997, pp. 134–137 Petrozavodsk (in Russian).

Wetzel, R. G. & Likens, G. E. 2000. Limnological Analyses. Springer, New York.

Zingel, P. 1999. Pelagic ciliated protozoa in a shallow eutrophic lake: Community structure and seasonal dynamics. Arch. Hydrobiol., 146, 495–511.

Zingel, P., Huitu, E., Mäkelä, S. & Arvola, L. 2002. The abundance and diversity of planktonic ciliates in 12 boreal lakes of varying trophic state. Arch. Hydrobiol., 155, 315–332.

Back to Issue

Back issues