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The plankton community of Lake Matano: factors regulating plankton composition and relative abundance in an ancient, tropical lake of Indonesia

  • SPECIATION IN ANCIENT LAKES
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Abstract

Recent evidence reveals that food webs within the Malili Lakes, Sulawesi, Indonesia, support community assemblages that are made up primarily of endemic species. It has been suggested that many of the species radiations, as well as the paucity of cosmopolitan species in the lakes, are related to resource limitation. In order to substantiate the possibility that resource limitation is playing such an important role, a study of the phytoplankton and zooplankton communities of Lake Matano was implemented between 2000 and 2004. We determined species diversity, relative abundances, size ranges, and total biomass for the phytoplankton and zooplankton, including the distribution of ovigerous individuals throughout the epilimnion of Lake Matano in three field seasons. The phytoplankton community exhibited very low biomass (<15 μg l−1) and species richness was depressed. The zooplankton assemblage was also limited in biomass (2.5 mg l−1) and consisted only of three taxa including the endemic calanoid Eodiaptomus wolterecki var. matanensis, the endemic cyclopoid, Tropocyclops matanensis and the rotifer Horaella brehmi. Zooplankton were very small (<600 μm body length), and spatial habitat partitioning was observed, with Tropocylops being confined to below 80 m, while rotifer and calanoid species were consistently observed above 80 m. Less than 0.1% of the calanoid copepods in each year were egg-bearing, suggesting very low population turnover rates. It was concluded that chemical factors as opposed to physical or biological processes were regulating the observed very low standing crops of phytoplankton which in turn supports a very minimal zooplankton community restricted in both species composition and abundance. As chemical factors are a function of the catchment basin of Lake Matano, it is predicted that resource limitation has long played an important role in shaping the unique endemic assemblages currently observed in the food web of the lake.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, ON, Canada, N9B 3P4

    Elisabeth Sabo, Denis Roy & G. Douglas Haffner

  2. Environment Canada, 351 St. Joseph Blvd, Gatineau, QC, Canada, K1A 0H3

    Elisabeth Sabo

  3. Research Division, Canadian Museum of Nature, P.O. Box 3443, Station D, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1P 6P4

    Paul B. Hamilton & Roger McNeely

  4. APCE c/o Limnology-LIPI Jalan Prof. Dr. Dody Tisna Amidjaja, Cibinong Science Centre, LIPI, Cibinong, 16911, Indonesia

    Peter E. Hehanussa

Authors
  1. Elisabeth Sabo
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  2. Denis Roy
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  3. Paul B. Hamilton
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  4. Peter E. Hehanussa
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  5. Roger McNeely
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  6. G. Douglas Haffner
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Correspondence to G. Douglas Haffner.

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Guest editors: T. Wilke, R. Väinölä & F. Riedel

Patterns and Processes of Speciation in Ancient Lakes: Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on Speciation in Ancient Lakes, Berlin, Germany, September 4–8, 2006

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Sabo, E., Roy, D., Hamilton, P.B. et al. The plankton community of Lake Matano: factors regulating plankton composition and relative abundance in an ancient, tropical lake of Indonesia. Hydrobiologia 615, 225–235 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-008-9560-4

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