ABSTRACT Zooplankton are an important link between trophic levels in aquatic ecosystems, and their response to organic carbon is likely to have broad implications for lake food webs. The main objective of the research was to determine variations in zooplankton communities against the background of the structural heterogeneity of the lake and to link the observed patterns to the organic carbon content of the lake water. Spatial differences were noted in the organic carbon content of the lake water. Higher total organic carbon (TOC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were recorded in the vegetated littoral area than in the lake pelagic zone. Zooplankton distribution and response to organic carbon content varied among habitats. At sites covered by plants, DOC and the bacterial sized fraction of particulate organic carbon were positively correlated with zooplankton biomass. In reeds, the grazing pressure by zooplankton on bacterial sized organic carbon was particularly strong. This implied that the microbial carbon link could be an important food web component providing carbon to higher trophic levels in areas covered by plants. This assumption corresponded well with the results of redundancy analysis (RDA).

中文翻译：

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浮游动物对大型植物覆盖的浅湖中有机碳含量的响应

摘要 浮游动物是水生生态系统中营养水平之间的重要联系，它们对有机碳的反应可能对湖泊食物网产生广泛的影响。研究的主要目的是确定在湖泊结构异质性背景下浮游动物群落的变化，并将观察到的模式与湖水中的有机碳含量联系起来。湖水中有机碳含量存在空间差异。植被沿岸地区的总有机碳 (TOC) 和溶解有机碳 (DOC) 浓度高于湖泊远洋区。浮游动物的分布和对有机碳含量的反应因栖息地而异。在植物覆盖的地方，DOC 和颗粒有机碳的细菌大小分数与浮游动物生物量呈正相关。在芦苇中，浮游动物对细菌大小的有机碳的放牧压力特别大。这意味着微生物碳链可能是一个重要的食物网组成部分，为植物覆盖的区域中的更高营养级提供碳。这一假设与冗余分析 (RDA) 的结果非常吻合。