{"id":170915,"date":"2012-09-05T22:14:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T02:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yfiledev.uit.yorku.ca\/?p=170915"},"modified":"2025-04-02T09:29:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T13:29:36","slug":"changing-water-chemistry-leaves-plankton-defenseless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2012\/09\/05\/changing-water-chemistry-leaves-plankton-defenseless\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing water chemistry leaves plankton defenseless"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine that the players on your favourite football team were smaller than their opponents, and had to play without helmets or pads. Left defenseless, they would become easy prey for other teams. Similarly, changes in Canadian lake water chemistry have left\u00a0small water organisms known as plankton\u00a0vulnerable to their predators, which may pose a serious environmental threat, according to a new study.<\/p>\n<p>Why do plankton matter? York biology Professor Norman Yan, the study\u2019s senior author,\u00a0says these\u00a0tiny creatures are critical to our survival. \u201cWithout plankton, humans would be quite hungry and perhaps even dead. Much of the world's photosynthesis, the basis of all of our food, comes from the ocean's plankton. The oxygen in every other breath we take is a product of phytoplankton photosynthesis,\u201d says Yan.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/yfile.news.yorku.ca\/files\/2012\/09\/NormanYan_1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-170919 size-full\" style=\"margin: 8px;\" title=\"NormanYan_1\" src=\"https:\/\/yfile.news.yorku.ca\/files\/2012\/09\/NormanYan_1.jpg\" alt=\"headshot of Norman Yan\" width=\"200\" height=\"241\" \/><\/a>Norman Yan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yan together with the study's lead author Howard Riessen, a professor of biology at SUNY College at Buffalo, studied the effect of changes in water chemistry on plankton prey defenses. Specifically, they examined how lower calcium concentrations affect <em>Daphnia<\/em> (water flea) exoskeleton development. These low calcium levels are caused by loss of calcium from forest soils, a consequence of decades of acid rain and multiple cycles of logging and forest growth. The <a href=\"https:\/\/yfile.news.yorku.ca\/files\/2012\/09\/Daphnia.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-170918 size-full\" style=\"margin: 8px;\" title=\"Daphnia\" src=\"https:\/\/yfile.news.yorku.ca\/files\/2012\/09\/Daphnia.png\" alt=\"Daphnia \" width=\"220\" height=\"251\" \/><\/a>results are published this week in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt low calcium levels the organisms grow slower and cannot build their armour,\u201d says Riessen.\u00a0\u201cWithout suitable armour, they are vulnerable to ambush by predators,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCalcium is a critical element for <em>Daphnia<\/em> and many other crustaceans,\u201d Riessen says. \u201c<em>Daphnia<\/em> build their exoskeletons, which include some defensive spines, with calcium to protect themselves from predators. Where calcium levels are low, the <em>Daphnia<\/em> have softer, smaller, exoskeletons with fewer defensive spines, making them an easy snack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This phenomenon of reduced calcium is also playing out on a much larger scale in the world\u2019s oceans,\u00a0notes Yan. \u201cIncreases in ocean acidity are complicating calcium acquisition by marine life, which is an under-reported effect of global carbon dioxide emissions. Thus marine plankton may also find themselves more vulnerable to predators,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/yfile.news.yorku.ca\/files\/2012\/09\/riessenm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-170921 size-full\" style=\"margin: 8px;\" title=\"riessenm\" src=\"https:\/\/yfile.news.yorku.ca\/files\/2012\/09\/riessenm.jpg\" alt=\"headshot of Howard Riessen\" width=\"100\" height=\"85\" \/><\/a>Howard Riessen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The public is used to stories about changes in water chemistry that lead to large-scale fish kills, says Riessen. \u201cThese changes are more insidious. <em>Daphnia<\/em> might not be a household name, but they are food for fish, and they help keep our lakes clean. Changing the balance between <em>Daphnia<\/em> and their predators marks a major change in lake systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>For more University news, photos and videos, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/yfile.news.yorku.ca\/\">YFile<\/a> homepage.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study by researchers at York University and SUNY College at Buffalo has found that lower concentrations of calcium in water chemistry leaves lake critters defenseless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":170923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[61,21],"yfileauthor":[],"qualifier":[],"yfile-author":[],"tags-to-show":[154],"workflow":[],"class_list":["post-170915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-picks","tag-science","tag-research","tags-to-show-research"],"acf":{"internal_publish_date":null,"original_image":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Changing water chemistry leaves plankton defenseless - YFile<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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