Phytoplankton response to short-term temperature and nutrient changes

Meteorological extreme events (heavy rainfall, heat waves) may lead to fast changes in nutrient load and water temperature in temperate lakes. We conducted laboratory experiments with an artificial phytoplankton community to mimic a rapid temperature increase (from 21 °C to 29 °C) at low nutrient levels (‘heat wave scenario’), respectively temperature decrease (from 21 °C to 16 °C) and increased nutrient load (‘heavy rainfall scenario’). We hypothesised that there is a taxon specific nutrient x temperature interaction, leading to significant shifts in the phytoplankton community composition when both variables change. To separate the temperature effect from the nutrient effect, we performed another experimental series at a reduced temperature but without addition of nutrients. As expected, the nutrient effect was overall more important than temperature and significantly affected all five taxa tested that represented different algal classes. However, temperature also played an important role for community composition, because the cryptophyte Cryptomonas sp. and the dinoflagellate Peridinium sp. reached significantly higher biovolumes at lower temperatures. The nutrient x temperature interaction was significant in the green alga Scenedesmus obliquus. These findings suggest that our experimental results cannot be interpreted primarily by species competition for nutrients. Heterotrophic bacteria were present in all experiments. Bacterial biomass was significantly positively related to temperature and nutrients. However, relative to phytoplankton biovolume, bacterial biovolume decreased under nutrient replete conditions. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that short-term environmental change may significantly affect both the phytoplankton community (in terms of species dominance and total biomass) and the ratio between autotrophs and heterotrophs in temperate lakes.