MANTEL ITN

A hydro-meteorological disturbance is a temporary change in environmental conditions that causes a pronounced change in an ecosystem. In lakes such disturbances can be caused by, for example, sudden changes in wind (both storms and longer calm periods), air temperature (affecting the ice regime and stratification) or precipitation (causing flushing effects, changing water levels, and driving nutrient loads from the catchment). The aims of this project are to:

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1. Establish an index or a set of indices for quantifying potential environmental disturbance based on day-to-day changes in meteorological and hydrological forcing and map the index levels retrospectively at a regional/European scale;

2. Identify how sensitive lake metabolism and the equilibrium state of phytoplankton are to potential environmental disturbance depending on (a) lake type parameters and (b) lake status parameters; and

3. Assess the influence of phytoplankton dominant taxa on lake metabolism.

 

To accomplish this, the ESR will:(a) develop a conceptual framework for selecting hydro-meteorological disturbance factors for lakes and create an algorithm for combining them into an index or set of indices; (b) estimate lake metabolism based on high frequency dissolved oxygen measurements and analyse the dominance structure of phytoplankton in a number of lakes of different types; (c) run enclosure experiments measuring metabolism of phytoplankton communities dominated by different taxa; and(d) apply statistical analysis and use modelling tools for identifying episodic events, testing relationships between disturbance levels and episodic events, and between phytoplankton community structure and metabolism.

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Nasime Janathian is the ESR for Project 3. Nasime will be primarily based in Estonian University of Life Science, supervised by Prof. Peeter Nõges and Dr Fabien Cremona, and co-supervised by and spend study time with Dr Biel Obrador, University of Barcelona, Spain. The PhD will receive a double award given by Estonian University of Life Sciences and University of Barcelona.

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Publications

Janatian, N., Olli, K., Nõges, P. (2021). Phytoplankton responses to meteorological and hydrological forcing at decadal to seasonal time scales. Hydrobiologia,  848: 2745–2759. DOI: 10.1007/s10750-021-04594-x

Tiina Nõges, Nasime Janatian, Reet Laugaste, Peeter Nõges (2020) Post-soviet changes in nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry in two large non-stratified lakes and the impact on phytoplankton. Global Ecology and Conservation, 24: e01369. DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01369

Nasime Janatian, Kalle Olli, Fabien Cremona, Alo Laas, Peeter Nõges (2019) Atmospheric stilling offsets the benefits from reduced nutrient loading in a large shallow lake. Limnology and Oceanography, 65: 717-731. DOI: 10.1002/lno.11342

Jason D. Stockwell, Jonathan P. Doubek, Rita Adrian, Orlane Anneville, Cayelan C. Carey, Laurence Carvalho, Lisette N. De Senerpont Domis, Gaël Dur, Marieke A. Frassl, Hans‐Peter Grossart, Bas W. Ibelings, Marc J. Lajeunesse, Aleksandra M. Lewandowska, María E. Llames, Shin‐Ichiro S. Matsuzaki, Emily R. Nodine, Peeter Nõges, Vijay P. Patil, Francesco Pomati, Karsten Rinke, Lars G. Rudstam, James A. Rusak, Nico Salmaso, Christian T. Seltmann, Dietmar Straile, Stephen J. Thackeray, Wim Thiery, Pablo Urrutia‐Cordero, Patrick Venail, Piet Verburg, R. Iestyn Woolway, Tamar Zohary, Mikkel R. Andersen, Ruchi Bhattacharya, Josef Hejzlar, Nasime Janatian, Alfred T. N. K. Kpodonu, Tanner J. Williamson, Harriet L. Wilson (2020) Storm impacts on phytoplankton community dynamics in lakes. Global Change Biology, 26(5): 2756-2784. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15033

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