Ecological studies on a lake ecosystem with unbalanced food web structure

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26650164
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Nakano Shin-ichi 京都大学, 生態学研究センター, 教授 (50270723)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TANI Yukinori 静岡県立大学, 食品栄養科学部, 准教授 (10285190)
• Research Collaborator: TAKASU Hiroyuki ; KISHIMOTO Yui ; FUJINAGA Shohei ; SAI Kichi
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 食物網構造 / 佐鳴湖 / シネココッカス / 動物プランクトン / 微生物食物網

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In Lake Sanaru, dominant phytoplankton in summer was cyanobacterial genus Synechococcus, and that in winter was dinoflagellate genus Katodinium which is an edible prey for meso-zooplankton. Density of zooplankton was usually low relative to that in previous studies, especially in winter. 53 to 175% of Synechococcus abundance was consumed by grazing, and flagellates were probably the most important grazers. Hence, it is likely that the food web dynamics in Lake Sanaru is driven by microbial food web between Synechococcus and flagellates. Herbivorous food chain between eukaryotic phytoplankton and meso-zooplankton is less important, even if there is the plenty of edible preys for meso-zooplankton.

Free Research Field

水域生態学