The Red Harmful Plague in Times of Climate Change: Blooms of the Cyanobacterium Planktothrix rubescens Triggered by Stratification Dynamics and Irradiance.

ABSTRACT: Planktothrix rubescens is a harmful planktonic cyanobacterium, forming concentrated metalimnetic populations in deep oligo- and mesotrophic lakes, even after successful restoration. In Lake Zurich (Switzerland), P. rubescens emerged as a keystone species with annual mass developments since the 1970s. Its success was partly attributed to effects of lake warming, such as changes in thermal stratification and seasonal deep mixing. However, recent observations based on a biweekly monitoring campaign (2009-2020) revealed two massive breakdowns and striking seasonal oscillations of the population. Here, we disentangle positive from negative consequences of secular lake warming and annual variations in weather conditions on P. rubescens dynamics: (i) despite the high survival

SUBMITTER: Knapp D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8425285 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature