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Environmental factors structuring benthic primary producers at different spatial scales in the St. Lawrence River (Canada)

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Abstract

The influence of environmental factors controlling the biomass of submerged aquatic macrophytes, cyanobacterial mats, and epiphyton was examined at three nested spatial scales within the St. Lawrence River: (1) along a 250-km-long upstream–downstream river stretch, (2) among three fluvial lakes located within that river stretch and (3) within each fluvial lake at sites located upstream, at the mouth, and downstream of the St. Lawrence River tributaries. Over its 250-km-long course, large increases of water colour (fivefold), suspended matter (tenfold), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (twofold) and dissolved N and P concentrations (2.5-fold) were observed in the St. Lawrence River, showing the cumulative effects of human activities on water quality. In contrast, biomass of submerged vascular macrophytes dropped tenfold along the sampled reach whereas biomass of epiphytes and cyanobacterial mats rose significantly. Biomass of the three benthic primary producers (PP) was explained (59 %) by the combined effects of conductivity, TP and spatial structure. Macrophyte biomass was related to changes in conductivity (+), biomass of epiphyton responded to DIN:TDP ratio (+) and light extinction coefficient (+) and cyanobacterial mats coincided with differences in DOC (+) and NH4 + (−). Within-lake structure was the most important spatial component for all benthic PP, suggesting that local effects, such as enrichment by the inflow of tributaries, rather than upstream–downstream gradients, determined the biomass of benthic PP. Our study shows that the sum of local tributary inflows exerts major overall pressures on benthic PP in the St. Lawrence River and that conversely, small-scale management of individual watersheds, can markedly improve local ecological condition of the river ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by the St. Lawrence Action Plan and Environment and Climate Change Canada (C.H.). The authors thank Antonella Cattaneo, Bernadette Pinel-Alloul, Roxanne Maranger, Jan R. Stevenson and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the manuscript. We also thank Jean-Pierre Amyot and Lisa Gualtieri for help with field data collection and the laboratory staff of the St. Lawrence Centre (LEEQ-ECCC) for water quality analyses. François Boudreault (ECCC) assembled and drafted the location map.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, Succursale Centre Ville, C.P. 6128, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada

    David Lévesque, Patrick M. A. James & Pierre Legendre

  2. Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 105 McGill St., Montreal, QC, H2Y 2E7, Canada

    Christiane Hudon

  3. Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire en limnologie et en environnement aquatique (GRIL), Trois-Rivières, Canada

    David Lévesque, Christiane Hudon & Pierre Legendre

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  1. David Lévesque
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Correspondence to David Lévesque.

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Lévesque, D., Hudon, C., James, P.M.A. et al. Environmental factors structuring benthic primary producers at different spatial scales in the St. Lawrence River (Canada). Aquat Sci 79, 345–356 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-016-0501-4

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