SOME EFFECTS OF LAKE RENEWAL ON PHYTOPLANKTON PRODUCTIVITY AND SPECIES COMPOSITION1

Abstract

Primary production in Marion Lake is inversely related to the rate at which water enters the lake when light intensity is corrected to a standard level. Increased flushing rates reduce the phytoplankton standing crop thereby lowering the total primary productivity in the lake. Thus seasonal variations in rainfall in southwestern British Columbia exert an appreciable influence on the annual productivity pattern of the lake’s phytoplankton. Lake water artificially enclosed within small areas of the lake produced algal blooms while phytoplankton standing crop in the rest of the lake remained low. Nannoplankton appear to have a selective advantage over larger, more slowly reproducing forms in Marion Lake. The production: biomass ratio for lake phytoplankton was used as an indication of the general type of limiting factor affecting the instantaneous rate of productivity in the lake.