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Impairing the largest and most productive forest on our planet: how do human activities impact phytoplankton?

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Abstract

This article summarizes the outcomes of the 16th Workshop of the International Association for Phytoplankton Taxonomy and Ecology. Four major issues dealing with the impact exerted by human activities on phytoplankton were addressed in the articles of this special volume: climate change and its impacts on phytoplankton, the role of land use in shaping composition and diversity of phytoplankton, the importance of autecological studies to fully understand how phytoplankton is impacted by stressors and the role of ecological classification to evaluate community changes due to the different impacts. Case studies from different types of aquatic environments (rivers, deep and shallow lakes, reservoirs, mountain lakes, and temporary ponds) and from diverse geographical locations (not only from the Mediterranean and temperate regions, but also from subtropical and tropical ones) have shown that a complex spectrum of human impacts, not exclusively linked to eutrophication, severely conditions structure and dynamics of phytoplankton assemblage both in the short and long terms. Moreover, the trade-offs between climate change and other human-induced stresses as eutrophication, agricultural and urban land use or water overexploitation contribute to make more severe the impact exerted by humans on phytoplankton and, in turn, on the functioning of aquatic ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

This paper got support from the CENTRAL EUROPE Programme (European Lakes Under Environmental Stressors, 2CE243P3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sustainable Agro-ecosystems and Bioresources Department, IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Istituto Agrario di S. Michele all’Adige - Fondazione E. Mach, Via E. Mach 1, 38010 S. Michele all’Adige, Trento, Italy

    Nico Salmaso

  2. Department of Environmental Biology and Biodiversity, University of Palermo, Via Archirafi, 38, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Luigi Naselli-Flores

  3. Department of Limnology, University of Pannonia, Egyetem utca 10, Veszprém, 8200, Hungary

    Judit Padisák

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  1. Nico Salmaso
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  2. Luigi Naselli-Flores
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  3. Judit Padisák
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Correspondence to Nico Salmaso.

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Guest editors: N. Salmaso, L. Naselli-Flores, L. Cerasino, G. Flaim, M. Tolotti & J. Padisák / Phytoplankton responses to human impacts at different scales: 16th workshop of the International Association of Phytoplankton Taxonomy and Ecology (IAP)

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Salmaso, N., Naselli-Flores, L. & Padisák, J. Impairing the largest and most productive forest on our planet: how do human activities impact phytoplankton?. Hydrobiologia 698, 375–384 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1253-3

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