RECONSTRUCTING HISTORICAL PHYTOPLANKTON COMMUNITIES WITHIN LAKE HURON THROUGH PIGMENT AND GENOMIC BIOMARKERS
In recent decades, the Laurentian Great Lakes have seen an increase in harmful and nuisance algal blooms. Despite increased off-shore water quality, Lake Huron has seen a sustained prevalence of cyanobacterial blooms in the Georgian and Saginaw Bays. This raises questions about the potential factors leading to these blooms and whether the bloom-forming species have changed with time. Using dated sediment cores, identification of phytoplankton communities using 16S rDNA sequencing, photosynthetic pigments (from cyanobacteria, green algae, and diatoms), and bulk elemental analysis, we seek to reconstruct historic communities to answer these questions. Three sediment cores were collected from Huron in the North Channel, Severn Sound, and Saginaw Bay. Preliminary results show that all cores contain a mix of freshwater algae and terrestrial organic matter inputs. In more recent sediments, there is a shift towards relatively more cyanobacteria-produced pigments and a minor shift away from diatom-specific pigments, indicating that at all core locations, cyanobacteria have become more dominant members of the phytoplankton community. These results show that in recent years the phytoplankton community within areas of concern in Lake Huron has veered toward potentially harmful cyanobacteria populations.
Primary Presenter: Emma MacNeill, Large Lakes Observatory - University of Minnesota (macne029@d.umn.edu)
Authors:
Emma MacNeill, University of Minnesota Duluth (macne029@d.umn.edu)
Kathryn Schreiner, University of Minnesota Duluth (kschrein@d.umn.edu)
Cody Sheik, University of Minnesota Duluth (cssheik@d.umn.edu)
Euan Reavie, University of Minnesota Duluth (ereavie@d.umn.edu)
RECONSTRUCTING HISTORICAL PHYTOPLANKTON COMMUNITIES WITHIN LAKE HURON THROUGH PIGMENT AND GENOMIC BIOMARKERS
Category
Scientific Sessions > SS39 - cHABs as a Response to Ecosystem Disturbance
Description
Time: 02:45 PM
Date: 7/6/2024
Room: Lecture Hall