Unexpected shift from phytoplankton to periphyton in eutrophic streams due to wastewater influx

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dc.contributor.authorBergbusch, Nathanael T.
dc.contributor.authorHayes, Nicole M.
dc.contributor.authorSimpson, Gavin L.
dc.contributor.authorLeavitt, Peter R.
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-28T16:54:06Z
dc.date.available2023-04-28T16:54:06Z
dc.date.issued2021-05-08
dc.description© 2021 The Authors. Limnology and Oceanography published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.en_US
dc.description.abstractPollution with nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) impairs streams by favoring suspended algae and cyano- bacteria over diatom-rich periphyton. Recently, wastewater treatment plants have been upgraded to biological nutrient removal to eliminate both P and N (mainly NH4+), although little is known of the effects of this effluent on flowing waters. Here, we used high performance liquid chromatography to quantify how the abundance and composition of phytoplankton and periphyton varied in response to both influx of effluent produced by biologi- cal nutrient removal and physico-chemical conditions in small, turbid, P-rich streams of the northern Great Plains. At the catchment scale, analysis with generalized additive models (GAMs) explained 40.5–62.6% of devi- ance in total phototroph abundance (as Chl a) and 72.5–82.5% of deviance in community composition (as biomarker carotenoids) in both planktonic and benthic habitats when date- and site-specific physico-chemical parameters were used as predictors. In contrast, GAMs using wastewater input (as aqueous δ15 N) as a predictor explained up to 50% of deviance in Chl a, and ~60% of deviance in community composition, in both suspended (51.6% of Chl a, 67.1% of composition) and attached communities (21.5% of Chl a, 58.8% of composition). Phy- toplankton was replaced by periphyton within a 60-km wastewater-impacted reach due to dilution of streams by transparent effluent and addition of urban NO3 , although predominance of phytoplankton was re-established after confluence with higher-order streams. Overall, influx of effluent shifted turbid, phytoplankton-rich streams to clear ecosystems with abundant epilithon by improving water transparency and providing NO3 to favor benthic diatoms and chlorophytes.en_US
dc.description.authorstatusFacultyen_US
dc.description.peerreviewyesen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported by the NSERC Canada Discovery Grants program, Canada Research Chairs, Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Province of Saskatchewan, the University of Regina, and Queens University Belfast.en_US
dc.identifier.citationBergbusch, N.T., N.M. Hayes, G.L. Simpson, and P.R. Leavitt. 2021. Unexpected shift from phytoplankton to periphyton in eutrophic streams due to wastewater influx. Limnol. Oceanogr. 66: 2745-2761. doi.org/10.1002/lno.11786en_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11786
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10294/15893
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherWileyen_US
dc.rightsAttribution 3.0 United States*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/*
dc.titleUnexpected shift from phytoplankton to periphyton in eutrophic streams due to wastewater influxen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
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