Table 1. Environmental properties, prokaryotic abundances, activity and BChl a concentrations and content in the epilimnetic waters of the lakes studied.
| Environmental properties | Bowker | Waterloo | Magog | Coulombe | Aylmer | Nicolet | Croche |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum depth (m) | 63 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 29 | 11 |
| Sampling depth (m) | 6.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 1.5 |
| KPAR (m−1) | 0.31 | 1.34 | 0.50 | 1.52 | 1.05 | 0.52 | 0.67 |
| Temperature (°C) | 21 | 25 | 23 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 21 |
| Dissolved oxygen (%) | 110 | 103 | 108 | 89 | 95 | 94 | 96 |
| pH | 8.2 | 8.6 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 7.2 | 7.5 | 6.7 |
| DOC (mg l−1) | 2.7 | 7.8 | 4.9 | 14 | 10 | 3.5 | 4.8 |
| TP (μg l−1) | 3.3 | 7.3 | 12.7 | 16.0 | 11.7 | 2.7 | 2.7 |
| DP (μg l−1) | 2.5 | 6.2 | 5.5 | 8.4 | 7.3 | 1.6 | 1.3 |
| TN (mg l−1) | 0.15 | 0.49 | 0.25 | 0.44 | 0.45 | 0.29 | 0.16 |
| DN (mg l−1) | 0.13 | 0.48 | 0.21 | 0.37 | 0.41 | 0.28 | 0.15 |
| Chl a (μg l−1) | 0.8 | 11.0 | 2.9 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 0.7 | 1.1 |
| Bacterial characteristics | |||||||
| Total bacteria (106 cells per ml) | 2.65 | 5.27 | 3.43 | 2.42 | 2.98 | 1.38 | 0.92 |
| AAP bacteria (104 cells per ml) | 3.05 | 13.5 | 7.78 | 6.71 | 9.57 | 4.16 | 4.00 |
| AAP bacteria (% of DAPI counts) | 1.15 | 2.57 | 2.27 | 2.78 | 3.22 | 3.01 | 4.34 |
| BChl a (ng l−1) | 5.94 | 24.29 | 10.52 | 9.80 | 5.16 | 8.53 | 12.57 |
| Specific BChl a (10−1 fg per cell) | 1.95 | 1.80 | 1.35 | 1.46 | 0.54 | 2.05 | 3.14 |
Abbreviations: AAP, aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic; BChl a, bacteriochlorophyll a; Chl a, chlorophyll a; DAPI, 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; DN, dissolved nitrogen; DOC, dissolved organic carbon; DP, dissolved phosphorous; KPAR, attenuation coefficient of photosynthetically active radiation; TN, total nitrogen; TP, total phosphorous.