Graduation date: 1986

The upper water column (<1 m depth) of freshwater lakes, which includes the surface microlayer (SML; <1 mm depth), is an important microbial habitat as well as an accumulation and dissemination site for chemical and microbial contaminants. This doctoral thesis reports novel insights into how the physical structure and functional capabilities of microbial communities can influence the presence of trace metals and health-relevant bacteria in the upper waters (SML and 0.5 m depth) of freshwater lakes. Two physically and geochemically contrasting lake environments, a remote sheltered boreal lake and a higher energy urban beach on Lake Ontario, were investigated to identify system-dependent physical and biogeochemical factors controlling contaminant-relevant microbial characteristics. The SML was identified as a major site for generation of contaminant-sequestering suspended flocs from a distinct biofilm-forming microbial community over diurnal timeframes via wind and sunlight exposure, with this process being enhanced at the higher energy beach site. More generally, upper waters including the SML were demonstrated to be inhabited by a diverse group of atypical facultative Fe(III)-reducing bacteria (IRB) that exhibited a SML- and lake-specific capacity for solid Fe(III) reduction directly related to floc and Fe(III) availability. Although IRB were hypothesized to be highly resistant to metals and antibiotics relative to other bacteria due to their ability to dissolve metal-rich Fe(III) minerals, this was not found to be the case. Nevertheless, IRB enriched from the SML demonstrated higher antibiotic resistance compared to those from 0.5 m depth and enriched Fe(III)-reducing communities from both depths harboured resistance-mobilizing genetic elements and included potentially pathogenic bacteria. Results of this thesis represent new knowledge concerning how microbial communities regulate the presence of contaminants in the upper waters of lakes. This has important implications for assessing the ecological and human health impacts of contaminants in freshwater systems. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

El caracol de agua dulce Pomacea canaliculata es un habitante natural de los cuerpos de agua del sudoeste bonaerense que ha sido ampliamente estudiado en diversos aspectos de su biología. A partir de su invasión en diferentes partes del mundo, su ecología trófica ha sido el tema principal de estudio, ya que el intenso consumo de macrófitas ha hecho que se convierta en una importante plaga de cultivos acuáticos, causando importantes pérdidas económicas. El estudio de los mecanismos de obtención de alimento y el consumo de recursos diferentes a las macrófitas son temas poco desarrollados hasta el momento. El mecanismo de la colecta pedal superficial, caracterizado por la formación de embudos con el pie, les permite a estos caracoles acceder a recursos muy variados que pueden encontrarse disponibles en la superficie del agua. Este adaptable mecanismo es llevado a cabo desde neonatos hasta adultos, disminuyendo la eficiencia de captura a medida que se incrementa el tamaño del caracol. Además, dicha eficiencia aumenta con disponibilidades crecientes de alimento pero no se ve afectada por el tamaño de las partículas de alimento. Los diversos materiales que pueden ser capturados para su consumo van desde pequeñas plantas flotantes hasta insectos, polen y biofilms. En relación al ritmo de este comportamiento trófico, la formación de embudos es más frecuente durante horas de oscuridad, inclusive en ambientes naturales, donde se registró esta actividad de manera intensa, lo que indica que ocurre bastante frecuentemente. La formación de embudos ocurre a bajas velocidades de corriente y su eficiencia aumenta con la temperatura. Por medio de la colecta pedal superficial P. canaliculata puede aprovechar un amplio espectro de recursos tróficos, algunos de los cuales les permite crecer. A pesar de que las tasas de crecimiento cuando el alimento ofrecido es exclusivamente neuston son menores que las obtenidas cuando son alimentados con macrófitas, el aporte al crecimiento puede ser lo suficientemente alto como para reemplazar a las macrófitas. Por otro lado, la aceptación y el consumo, por parte de caracoles de tallas muy variadas, de recursos tróficos diferentes a las macrófitas pueden representar una alternativa que les permite crecer en ausencia de ellas. Un ejemplo de esto es la carroña (restos de origen animal) que si bien como complemento a altas disponibilidades de macrófitas no produce un efecto positivo relevante en el mediano plazo, como único recurso disponible les permite crecer más que si no tuvieran alimento. Por otro lado, sus propios huevos, cuando son accidentalmente sumergidos, también son intensamente consumidos en ambientes naturales y su consumo permite lograr un mayor crecimiento ante la ausencia de otros recursos. La detección de la carroña parece necesitar de un contacto directo con ella, sin que medie un mecanismo de quimiorrecepción a distancia como en el caso de los huevos sumergidos. Pomacea canaliculata, debido a su intenso consumo de macrófitas, es capaz de generar importantes cambios estructurales en la vegetación de los cuerpos de agua que habita, erradicándola totalmente o favoreciendo la dominancia de especies no palatables. Dichos cambios han constituido probablemente una presión selectiva para ampliar y diversificar su dieta y mecanismos de alimentación y así poder persistir y establecer poblaciones en sitios carentes de macrófitas o de macrófitas palatables, lo que parece haber favorecido el desarrollo de su gran su capacidad invasiva. / The freshwater snail Pomacea canaliculata is a common inhabitant of natural waterbodies in Southwestern Buenos Aires Province which has been the subject of numerous biological studies. After its establishment as an invader in many areas around the world, the interest on its trophic ecology increased notably, since its voracious consumption of aquatic macrophytes transformed it in a pest of aquatic crops responsible for important economic losses. However, the use of other mechanisms of food capture and trophic resources other than macrophytes has not been studied systematically heretofore. Pedal surface collecting is a mechanism of food capture that, through the formation of a ciliated funnel with the forefoot, allows these snails to take advantage of a wide spectrum of trophic resources associated to the water surface. Snails of all sizes, from hatchlings to adults, are able to perform pedal surface collecting although the specific capture rate decreases with size; the specific capture rate increases with the availability of food particles in the water surface but it is not affected by particle size. The materials that can be captured by pedal surface collecting range from duckweed and water ferns to insects, pollen and biofilms. Pedal surface collecting is very frequent in natural waterbodies, it occurs mostly during night and can reach high levels. Snails perform pedal surface collecting only in slow flowing water and its efficiency increases with temperature. Pomacea canaliculata is able to capture diverse materials by pedal surface collecting and is able to grow with some of them as the only resource. Even though the growth rates when feeding on neuston by pedal surface collecting are lolwer than those obtained by feeding on macrophytes, the growth rates with neuston are high enough to supplant macrophyte consume. The use of alternative trophic resources by snails of all sizes probably allows them to grow even if macrophytes, their preferred food, are absent. For instance, even though carrion has no significant effect on growth in the midterm when macrophyte availability is high, it allows snails to growth significantly more than starving snails. On the other hand, P. canaliculata readily attacks and consumes its own eggs when it finds them accidentally submersed, and is able to grow using them as the only trophic resource. Distance chemoreception seems to play a role in the detection of submersed egg masses but not of carrion. Due to their voracious consume of macrophytes P. canaliculata snails are able to provoke important structural changes in the vegetation of the waterbodies they inhabit, either by eradicating it or by favoring the dominance of unpalatable species. These changes have probably represented a selective pressure for the diversification of their diet and trophic mechanisms, allowing them to persist in waterbodies without palatable macrophytes and enhancing their invasive capabilities.