Summer picoseston in lake Kandry-Kul (Bashkortostan rep., Russia)

Concentration of seston particles with size less than 2 μm (picoseston: bacterioplankton, phototrophic picoplankton and organic pikodetritus) was investigated at different stations of Lake Kandry-Kul (Rep.Bashkortostan, Russia) in July 2012. Spatial distribution of the picoseston as a whole and its fractions, as well as its size structure is presented. The average biomass of picoseston comprised 187.6 mg/l or 21.5 % of the biomass of phytoplankton. Bacterioplankton was the main component to the total biomass of picoseston (mean - 78%), proportions of the phototrophic pikoplaknton and picodetritus were much lower (11.3 and 10.7 %, respectively). Despite smaller productivity of the lake, the obtained quantitative indicators of picoseston are comparable to those of several Volga reservoirs.