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Phytoplankton species interactions and invasion by Ceratium furcoides are influenced by extreme drought and water-hyacinth removal in a shallow tropical reservoir

  • PHYTOPLANKTON & BIOTIC INTERACTIONS
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Abstract

This study explored the interactions of phytoplankton species during the invasion of Ceratium furcoides and the environmental variables that contributed to its establishment and ecological success in a shallow eutrophic reservoir (Garças Reservoir, southeast Brazil), which has been monitored monthly for 20 years (1997–2017). The Ceratium furcoides invasion in September 2014 was preceded by disturbance events (macrophyte removal and a historical drought period), which disrupted the dominance of cyanobacteria by modifying resource availability (high water transparency and soluble reactive phosphorus concentrations) and recruiting other species. Ceratium blooms at the water surface were preceded by high abundance near the bottom, suggesting the importance of the propagule bank. However, the pattern of Ceratium-Microcystis coexistence that is usually recorded in temperate lakes was not observed. Instead, Ceratium replaced Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii in mixing periods with high light and nitrogen availabilities, significantly influencing the abundance of Trachelomonas spp. Flagellated forms became dominant in the Garças Reservoir, due to the higher water transparency and relatively lower water-column stability, and alternative states between Ceratium-Trachelomonas in mixing periods and Microcystis-Cryptomonas in stratified periods have been repeated. Since then, cyanobacterial dominance ceased, and the “skillful” Ceratium apparently has come to stay, influencing interactions among phytoplankton species.

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Fig. 1

Reproduced with reference from Bicudo et al. (2007)

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to FAPESP, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo and to CNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico for providing several funds and grants over these years. DCB and CEMB thank CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico) for Research Fellowships (310404/2016-9 and 303876/2004-2). We are profoundly grateful for the valuable support of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the technicians for their continuous support in the field and the laboratory over these many years. We also thank Yukio Hayashi da Silva for improving the illustration of the study area.

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  1. Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Luciane Oliveira Crossetti

  2. Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Botânica, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Denise de Campos Bicudo, Carla Ferragut & Carlos Eduardo de Mattos Bicudo

  3. Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil

    Luis Mauricio Bini

  4. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade Animal, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil

    Renato Bolson Dala-Corte

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  1. Luciane Oliveira Crossetti
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Correspondence to Luciane Oliveira Crossetti.

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Guest editors: Hugo Sarmento, Irina Izaguirre, Vanessa Becker & Vera L. M. Huszar / Phytoplankton and its Biotic Interactions

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Crossetti, L.O., Bicudo, D.C., Bini, L.M. et al. Phytoplankton species interactions and invasion by Ceratium furcoides are influenced by extreme drought and water-hyacinth removal in a shallow tropical reservoir. Hydrobiologia 831, 71–85 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3607-y

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