I intend to understand how sustainable an aquatic ecosystem is based on its plankton population. Can anyone help me with suitable methods available?
Hello Dr. Manasi Mukherjee,
Are you looking for answers related to phytoplankton, zooplankton or benthos?, since observation of ecosystem sustainability do and can differ based on the information yielded and rest assured they will be varied while taking into account any one of the three factions or all of the three together. The best in situ results for an ecosystem will be obtained from the benthic community as they are always in the thick of things, however, planktonic species almost always indicate non point source perturbations in addition to the ambient condition as they are limited by the laminar flow and are thus drifters. You can always look into studying the ecological succession within these indicators. Because the successful succession is only possible if and when the ecosystem gets nourished and in turn provides nourishment to the bioindicators who in turn in their death replenish the ecosystem itself. The study is succession includes analyses of both the biotic and abiotic sections of any ecosystem rendering it broad spectrum as well, in order to interpret the sustainability better.
I sincerely hope that my suggestion helps you in your research.
Regards,
Dr. Abhishek Mukherjee
The EU Water Framework Directive includes phytoplankton as one of the four biological elements to be used in the assessment of the ecological status of surface waters. Trophic state index ( in which chlorophyl a, total phosphorus concentration and Secchi depth are included ) is commonly used to measure eutrophication. Trophy quotients have also been based on on the number of taxa from different algal groups or diversity indecies has become commonly and widely accepted. ... For more details consult https://www.sciencedirect.com
Hello, there are several measures and proxies that you can use them such as Trophic state index, Trophy quotients. However, if you want you can build a composite index through the use of the Principal component analysis (PCA) in accordance with the availability of the data of the included items.
For more detail please see:
Article Ecosystem Integrity Index, an innovative environmental evalu...
Article Ecosystem-based water security and the sustainable development goals
Article Establishing causal links between aquatic biodiversity and e...
Article Linking biodiversity to ecosystem services supply: Patterns ...
Environmental health A group of species whose function, collection, or status may reveal the degree of ecosystem or environmental safety. An example of a range of biological indicators is the foot paddle and other small aquatic crustaceans found in many water bodies. The impact of these organisms on biochemical, physiological or behavioral changes (which may indicate a problem in the ecosystem) can be monitored. Biological indicators may tell us about the cumulative effects of different pollutants in the ecosystem and about the extent of the problem that may exist, for which physical and chemical testing can not be performed. These organisms (or communities of organisms) provide information on environmental changes or the amount of environmental pollutants by changing one of the following methods: physiological, chemical or behavioral.
I beg you pardon madam Aafra Ibrahim, but have you read my question before answering? Does this anyway relate to my question?
The species composition of the plankton community is very variable in the same place throughout the year. Therefore, based on the species composition it is difficult or impossible to draw a correct conclusion about the stability of the ecosystem. Moreover, the variability of species composition of individual communities is aimed at ensuring the functional stability of the ecosystem. The functional stability of the ecosystem is determined by the ratio of the processes of creation and destruction of living matter, primary photosynthetic production and destruction of organic matter, the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
"Order is the first law of heaven," " Balance is God's Supreme concern." Alexander Pope.
Life tends to maximize itself. In terms of thermodynamics-to create maximum order. But for the reproduction of life requires energy costs, dissipating to some extent. So life is a balance between reproduction and destruction. In each case, it is necessary to find real indicators that can be measured and based on them to calculate the balance. But this balance is not an absolute constant, but an attractor to which the balance tends. Different indices are generally speculative and are not universal for different ecosystems and different situations.
The species composition of the plankton community is very variable in the same place throughout the year.
The functional groups approach by Reynolds provides important information on the characteristcs of an ecossystem based on the phytoplankton population, by stating that different (even non-related) organisms who share common adaptations can be classified in a same functional group. These groups are more or less frequent in different areas, according to the existing conditions.
https://academic.oup.com/plankt/article/24/5/417/1507791
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