The effect of grazer size manipulation on periphyton communities

We examined the effect of grazer size on periphyton biomass, size structure, and species compostion by removing the largest invertebrate grazers on artificial macrophytes planted in the littoral of Lake Memphremagog (Que-Vt). A series of exclosures with increasingly fine mesh prevented colonization by large invertebrates but allowed in smaller grazers. Oligochaetes, chironomids, and cladocerans effectively replaced snails so that total grazer biomass in the various treatments was not significantly different from the controls. With one exception, algal biomass, measured as chlorophyll a, did not differ significantly among the various treatments. However algal size and taxonomy were affected because the dominance of large blue-green colonies was apperantly related to the presence of large grazers. The results of the size manipulations were qualitatively similar to those induced in phytoplankton communities by size selective zooplankton grazing and are consistent with models based on general allometric equations.