P2007-05: Reduced plankton diversity in extremely acidic mining lakes

Project leader :

This is a pilot study to analyze the reasons for reduced plankton diversity in extremely acidic mining lakes (AML). The overall project will comparatively investigate three AML (pH <3) at Langau, Lower Austria, and in Lusatia, eastern Germany, and one neighbouring circumneutral lake at Langau. The AML at Langau is the most acidic lake in Austria. The pilot study shall prepare a comprehensive, interdisciplinary project, that has been submitted to the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) in February, 2007. The overall project will involve collaboration with two German partner laboratories at the Universities of Potsdam and Leipzig; the intended duration is 3 years.

The aims of the pilot study are to:

- isolate the protist species Ochromonas sp. from the acid mining lake at Langau; this is a keystone species in the food web of acidic mining lakes (of pH <3). Its ecophysiology and molecular genetics will be investigated together with its sibling species from the German AML

- conduct two more surveys of the food web in the 2 study lakes at Langau during spring and summer to obtain a more profound understanding of the food web in the Lower Austrian lakes

- finish the laborious analyses of the samples taken from the AML at Langau during autum, 2005

- summarize the existing results for the final report of the pilot study

	Fig.2: The lakes under study differ according to pH, their age and the distance from each other.

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	Final Report (German)
	Poster (German)