Ecology of Phytoplankton in Lake Belwood, a Storage Reservoir in Southern Ontario

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Abstract
A 16-month study on a storage reservoir explained some of the factors controlling the seasonal development of phytoplankton in such an environment. Thermal stratification was unstable but was established in one of the two summers of the study and was associated with oxygen depletion in the hypolimnion. Both nitrate and phosphate concentrations showed distinct seasonality and the amounts in the influent were very similar to the amounts in the effluent. Large populations of Cryptomonas spp. developed in the early summer, when amounts of phosphate and nitrate were minimal, and were followed by a succession of planktonic Cyanophyta lasting into the winter. A population of Peridinium aciculiferum (Lemm.) Lemm. occurred over the winter. Based on their ecology in the reservoir the species of phytoplankton were divided into three groups: an autochthonous group, which developed populations simultaneously all over the lake; an allochthonous group, which sometimes formed populations around the inflow; and the river plankton, which rarely developed in the reservoir.

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