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Warmer climates boost cyanobacterial dominance in shallow lakes

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Author

  • Sarian Kosten
  • Vera L. M. Huszar
  • Eloy Becares
  • Luciana S. Costa
  • Ellen van Donk
  • Lars-Anders Hansson
  • Erik Jeppesenk
  • Carla Kruk
  • Gissell Lacerot
  • Nestor Mazzeo
  • Luc De Meester
  • Brian Moss
  • Miquel Lurling
  • Tiina Noges
  • Susana Romo
  • Marten Scheffer
Show all

Summary, in English

Dominance by cyanobacteria hampers human use of lakes and reservoirs worldwide. Previous studies indicate that excessive nutrient loading and warmer conditions promote dominance by cyanobacteria, but evidence from global scale field data has so far been scarce. Our analysis, based on a study of 143 lakes along a latitudinal transect ranging from subarctic Europe to southern South America, shows that although warmer climates do not result in higher overall phytoplankton biomass, the percentage of the total phytoplankton biovolume attributable to cyanobacteria increases steeply with temperature. Our results also reveal that the percent cyanobacteria is greater in lakes with high rates of light absorption. This points to a positive feedback because restriction of light availability is often a consequence of high phytoplankton biovolume, which in turn may be driven by nutrient loading. Our results indicate a synergistic effect of nutrients and climate. The implications are that in a future warmer climate, nutrient concentrations may have to be reduced substantially from present values in many lakes if cyanobacterial dominance is to be controlled.

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

118-126

Publication/Series

Global Change Biology

Volume

18

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Ecology

Keywords

  • climate change
  • cyanobacteria
  • Europe
  • light
  • nutrients
  • phytoplankton
  • shade
  • South America
  • temperature
  • trophic state

Status

Published

Research group

  • Aquatic Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1354-1013