Factors controlling pelagic production and respiration in a shallow polymictic lake

Shallow lakes, defined as 'nonstratifying', polymictic water bodies are usually eutrophic and highly productive, and more turbid than deeper lakes due to bottom sediment resuspension. Gross primary production (GPP) and total planktonic community respiration (TCR) were measured in a very shallow (on average 1.2 m deep) and large (area 25 km2), polymictic, eutrophic Lake Gardno (Baltic coastal lake, Northern Poland) with the light-and-dark bottle method. The aim was to compare GPP to TCR ratio in the pelagic zone in a course of a year and identify factors governing these processes. Identified factors governing GPP were light conditions and temperature, with Q[10] = 2.23 in the 2-24.5[degrees]C temperature range, whereas TCR was driven by water temperature (Q[10] = 2.15 in the same temperature range) and by organic matter content in water. TCR was correlated with total suspended matter (effect of bottom sediment resuspension due to wind action in a very shallow lake), however not with chlorophyll content. During two-year measurement period (years 2006 and 2007), annual GPP amounted to 402 and 471 g C m[^-2], and TCR amounted to 192 and 223 g C m[^-2] respectively. Lake Gardno pelagic system seemed to be net autotrophic on annual basis; GPP to TCR ratio = 2.1. Part of the organic matter produced in pelagial is probably deposited in bottom sediments decomposed there. Wind induced resuspension increases matter content in water (measured here as TSM content) and thus contributes to pelagic respiration processes (TCR).