Zooplankton recovery from a whole‐lake disturbance: Examining roles of abiotic factors, biotic interactions, and traits

Community assembly following disturbance is a key process in determining the composition and function of the future community.  However, replicated studies of community assembly at whole ecosystem scales are rare.  Here, we describe a series of whole-lake experiments in which the recovery of zooplankton communities was tracked following an ecosystem-scale disturbance, i.e., application of the piscicide, rotenone.  Using a BACI design, fourteen lakes in eastern Washington were studied: seven lakes were treated with rotenone, while seven lakes acted as reference systems.  Each lake was monitored up to six months before and one to two years after the rotenone treatments.  Zooplankton samples and environmental measurements were collected approximately monthly from each lake. Community responses following disturbance were assessed using metrics of abundance, diversity, and community composition, as well as taxonomic group abundance.  Zooplankton recovery was also assessed using species trait..., Data were collected between 2014 and 2016 in a set of 14 lakes in eastern Washington state.  Seven lakes served as references, while seven lakes were treated with rotenone in either fall 2014 or fall 2015.  Monthly samples were collected for water quality parameters (water temperature, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, pH, Secchi depth; the first four parameters at 1-m intervals from the deepest spot in the lake) and crustacean zooplankton (vertical integrated tows from the bottom to the surface; from three locations). In July of each sampling year, an integrated water sample of the epilimnion was collected for nutrient analysis.  Crustacean zooplankton samples from each date-lake combination were combined, weighting by volume of net tows, and were identified and enumerated using microscopy.  See paper for additional details.  Fish stocking densities were obtained from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Zooplankton were analyzed with several metrics, including abun..., When monthly samples were not taken, an empty line of NA values are included so that figures show gaps appropriately.

A README file is included that describes the R scripts and associated datasets.