Factors controlling phytoplankton in tropical high-mountain drinking-water reservoirs

Abstract

Factors controlling phytoplankton in tropical high-mountain drinking-water reservoirs Hydraulic dynamics is one of the primary factors determining the structural and temporal changes in phytoplankton communities in reservoirs. There is little information on the factors that explain the temporal changes in biotic communities in the high-mountain reservoirs that provide water to the city of Bogota (Colombia). Our objective was to identify the environmental factors controlling the biomass and composition of algal communities in four tropical high-mountain reservoirs. We hypothesised that hydraulic dynamics is the major determining factor in temporal changes in phytoplankton communities in tropical mountain reservoirs regardless of the nutrient concentration in the system. We studied the temporal changes in phytoplankton over five years in four reservoirs that exhibit different nutrient concentrations and hydraulic management regimes. The phytoplankton in all of the reservoirs were characterised by the dominance of Dinophyceae. Canonical correspondence analyses and Pearson's correlations showed that the water renewal rate primarily explains the phytoplankton composition, followed by total nitrogen, total phosphorous and silicates. The effect of the water renewal rate was different depending on the particular conditions in each system; thus, in reservoirs with greater hydraulic dynamics, the water renewal rate explained the selection of secondary species and dominant species adapted to a broad range of environmental conditions. In the reservoir with a higher physical stability, eventual changes in the water renewal rate shifted the dominant species, reduced diversity and altered phytoplankton succession. In the reservoir with the largest volume and lowest nutrient concentration, phytoplankton species were selected primarily based on chemical and physical variables related to climatic seasonality. Our results suggest that the model for hydraulic management of the reservoirs plays an important role: in highly dynamic reservoirs, there is a direct causal relationship between phytoplankton and physical variables such as stability and water renewal rate; in less dynamic environments, phytoplankton species growth responds primarily to water chemistry.