Phytoplankton Community Responses to Nutrient Addition in Lake 226, Experimental Lakes Area, Northwestern Ontario

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Abstract
Inclusion of phosphorus in fertilizer added to one of two basins of a small lake, between which water exchange was greatly reduced by a vinyl sea-curtain, significantly increased epilimnetic phytoplankton biomass, and altered species composition. Over an 8-yr period, the average biomass of phytoplankton in the basin receiving carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus (in ratios of 10:5:1) increased 4 to 8 times and the biomass in the basin receiving only carbon and nitrogen (in ratios of 10:5) increased 2 to 4 times over non-fertilized years. The basin receiving all three nutrients consistently had blooms in late summer which were dominated by nitrogen fixing species of cyanophytes. In comparison with unfertilized reference lakes, the proportion of phytoplankton in fertilized basins which was available to zooplankton as food was 10 times greater in the basin receiving all three nutrients, and two times greater in the basin receiving only nitrogen and carbon. When fertilization of both basins was stopped, species composition and levels of biomass reverted within a year to the composition and biomass levels of phytoplankton observed in the reference lakes and remained at those levels for 2 further years of study.

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