Lake Warming Favors Small-sized Planktonic Diatom Species

Diatoms are important microscopic plants in the oceans and many lakes and depend on water-column mixing to proliferate.


As climate warming affects the vertical temperature profile and limits the normal mixing process, it is expected that these non-motile cells will decline because of reduced nutrient supply from deep-water layers and increased sinking.


Historical counts from Lake Tahoe showed that while diatoms maintained their abundance with reduced mixing over the last decades, the community structure changed.


Small-sized cells within the genus Cyclotella increased with lake warming, which decreased average diatom size and thus sinking rate.


These results support the hypotheses that warmer climate favors small-sized diatom species, which will have implications for carbon cycling in the ecosystem.


Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences


Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.


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