Microbial biomass at land water interface and its role in regulating ecosystem properties of a fresh water dry tropical woodland lake.

ABSTRACT

This study was aimed at determining microbial biomass at land water interface and the role it plays in regulating ecosystem properties of a fresh water dry tropical woodland lake. Four microbial variables namely biomass-C (Cmic), fumigated CO2-C, substrate induced respiration (SIR) and basal respiration (BR) were measured in humus samples collected from land water interface over a period of one year Microbial biomass (Cmic) was maximum during February (718 micorg CO2-C g(-1)). Similar was the case of fumigated CO2-C (560 microg CO2-C g(-1) 10 d(-1)), SIR (2900 microg CO2-C g(-1)) and BR (480 microg CO2-C g(-1)). Humus-N appeared maximum (1.60%) during November and phenolics (204 microg g(-1)) during December Gross primary productivity (GPP) was found maximum (3.30 g Cm(-2)d(-1)) during March. Almost similar trend appeared for chlorophyll and phytoplankton density. Variation in microbial biomass at land water interface can be explained by seasonality and the quality of substrate material. Asynchrony in the peaks of microbial variables with phytoplankton pulsation and GPP suggested that the microbial biomass through nutrient mineralization regulates ecosystem functioning of a fresh water woodland lake. This has relevance for evaluating the nature of anthropogenic perturbations and for maintenance of fresh water lakes void of human disturbances.