A Dinoflagellate’s Journey Through the Water Column: Monitoring Water Quality in Lake George

Session: Poster session

Andrea Krueger, Brock University, [email protected]
Francine McCarthy, Brock University, [email protected]
Matthew Shuler, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, [email protected]
Paul Michael Pilkington, Brock University, [email protected]
Gregor Hemon, McMaster University, [email protected]
Liette Vasseur, Brock University, [email protected]
Richard Relyea, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, [email protected]
Lawrence Eichler, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, [email protected]

Abstract

Dinoflagellates are a major constituent of the summer phytoplankton assemblages of North American lacustrine ecosystems. The fossil record of dinoflagellates is a function of environmental conditions experienced by the motile photosynthesizing thecate stage in the epilimnion and conditions affecting the preservation of cysts through the water column and surface sediments. Using a combined phycological and palynological approach, we investigated the relationship between limnological conditions, the modern phytoplankton assemblage, and the fossil record of dinoflagellate cysts in sediments. Relating well-known dinoflagellates to unknown cysts in lakebed sediments is critical to using their fossil record in water quality studies.

Paired seasonal samplings of the water column with sediment traps deployed at Rensselaer’s Darrin Fresh Water Institute’s continuous monitoring stations near Tea Island and Anthony’s Nose in the southern and northern sub-basins of Lake George, NY.  Fusiperidinium wisconsinense, an indicator of oligotrophic to mesotrophic conditions, was present in dinoflagellate assemblages in the Anthony’s Nose water column but absent from Tea Island samples where eutrophic taxa were common. Differences between levels of eutrophication were also reflected in cyst assemblages in lakebed sediments at the more human-impacted Tea Island site, near Lake George Village, and the less impacted Anthony’s Nose site.

1. Keyword
biomonitoring

2. Keyword
algae

3. Keyword
paleolimnology