Changing environmental conditions underpin long-term patterns of phytoplankton in a freshwater reservoir

Abstract

Environmental changes can exert strong pressure on freshwater biota and lead to unwanted alterations of local communities and deterioration of ecosystem services. Disentangling the links between environmental and community changes is, therefore, essential to understand and predict the impact of human activities on freshwater ecosystems. This is particularly relevant for man-made freshwater reservoirs that represent a nexus between anthropogenic, environmental, and biotic effects. Reservoir food webs depend strongly on phytoplankton dynamics, which are affected by abiotic conditions, nutrient availability and grazing pressure by zooplankton. We studied the effects of relevant environmental drivers (hydrochemistry, hydrodynamics and zooplankton) on the composition, diversity and community stability of main morpho-functional phytoplankton groups over 32 years in the Římov Reservoir (Czech Republic). Environmental conditions in the reservoir are characterised by three distinct periods (1983–89, 1990–99, and 2000–14) defined by shifts and breakpoints in temporal trends in reservoir hydrochemistry and hydraulic conditions, and we examined if and how phytoplankton responded to these abrupt changes. We found significant differences in phytoplankton composition among the three periods. Phytoplankton underwent a substantial compositional shift towards a dominance of pennate diatoms. Time-lag analysis of dissimilarity in phytoplankton composition revealed higher and stochastic annual variations until 1999, followed by a lower variability and divergence in phytoplankton composition in subsequent years. Changes in overall phytoplankton assemblage and most abundant morpho-functional phytoplankton groups were driven mainly by hydrochemical (total nitrogen) and hydrodynamic variables (inflow rate, surface level and mixing depth) and less by zooplankton dynamics. These results suggest that phytoplankton are driven primarily by nutrient input and water regime, both of which can be appropriately managed to support valuable ecosystem services provided by phytoplankton in freshwater reservoirs.