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Development of the phytoplankton of the shallow Srebarna Lake (north-eastern Bulgaria) across a trophic gradient

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Abstract

Results of an analysis of phytoplankton samples, collected between 1982 and 1995 from Srebarna Lake, a biosphere reserve, in north-eastern Bulgaria, are presented. The lake is polymictic, and strongly eutrophied. It has undergone an anthropogenically-forced succession. In 1994, a restoration of the lake was commenced when a canal connecting it to the Danube River was built.

Special attention is paid to the shifts in the qualitative composition of the phytoplankton (240 species), in the number of dominant species and assemblage structure, as well as to the changes in structural parameters and phytoplankton abundance during lake enrichment. The generalised changes involved a shift from a chlorococcal dominated-phytoplankton, rich in phytoplankton groups, to a chroococcal and oscillatoralean one, poor in algal groups. With recovery, from hypertrophy to eutrophy, more algal groups contributed to the phytoplankton, and dominance of chlorococcal genera resumed. An increase in total phytoplankton abundance with advancing eutrophication and a decrease during early oligotrophication were detected. The values of structural parameters were related to nutrient input and changed after restoration. However, the stages of phytoplankton development along the trophic gradient and back were not exactly reversed.

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  1. Maya Petrova Stoyneva
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Stoyneva, M.P. Development of the phytoplankton of the shallow Srebarna Lake (north-eastern Bulgaria) across a trophic gradient. Hydrobiologia 369, 259–267 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017015825018

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