Phosphorus-only fertilization rapidly initiates large nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria blooms in two oligotrophic lakes
- Description:
- Two small, oligotrophic lakes at the IISD-Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario, Canada were fertilized weekly with only phosphorus (P) in the summer and early fall of 2019. The P fertilization rates were high enough (13.3 µg L-1 added weekly) to produce dense, month-long blooms of N2-fixing Dolichospermum species in both lakes within 9-12 weeks after fertilization began, turning them visibly green without the addition of nitrogen. P-only fertilization increased average seasonal chlorophyll a concentrations and cyanobacteria biomass well above the pre-fertilization levels of 2017 and 2018. Nitrogen (N) content in the epilimnion of thermally stratified Lake 304 and the water column of shallow Lake 303 doubled and P storage in the water column temporarily increased during the blooms. These whole-lake fertilization experiments demonstrate that large cyanobacteria blooms can develop rapidly under high P loading without anthropogenic N inputs, suggesting that aggressive N control programs are unlikely to prevent bloom formation and that P controls should remain the cornerstone for cyanobacteria management.
- Molot, Lewis A., Higgins, Scott N., Schiff, Sherry, Venkiteswaran, Jason, Paterson, Michael J., and Baulch, Helen M.
- Contributor(s):
- Venkiteswaran, Jason and Laurier Library Research Data Services
- Source Repository:
- Wilfrid Laurier University Dataverse
- Series:
- Wilfrid Laurier University Library Research Data Repository Dataverse
- Publisher(s):
- Borealis
- Access:
- Public
- URL:
- https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/Q7FYSI
- Publication date:
- 2021-06-15
- Subjects:
- Keywords:
- Identifier:
- https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/Q7FYSI
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