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Water level as the main driver of the alternation between a free-floating plant and a phytoplankton dominated state: a long-term study in a floodplain lake

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Abstract

This 10-year field data study explores the relevance of water level fluctuations in driving the shift from a free-floating plant (FFP) to a phytoplankton dominated state in a shallow floodplain lake from the Lower Paraná River. The multi-year natural flood pulse pattern in the Lower Paraná River drove the ecosystem regime from a FFP-dominant state during very high waters (1998–1999) to absolute phytoplankton prevalence with blooms of nitrogen fixing Cyanobacteria during extreme low waters (2008–2009). Satellite images support the observed changes over the decade and show the decrease of the surface lake area covered by FFP as well as the modification of the spectral firm in open waters, which documents the significant increases in phytoplankton chlorophyll a concentrations. We discuss the possibility that, despite a slow eutrophication in these highly vegetated systems, water level changes and not nutrients account for the shift from a floating macrophyte community to phytoplankton dominance. Cyclic shifts may occur in response to the seasonal floodpulse, but more strongly, as indicated by our results, in association to the extreme drought and flood events related to the El Niño Southern Oscillation, which is linked to discharge anomalies in the Paraná River.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the staff of the Reserva de Otamendi for their field assistance, Dr. Patricia Kandus for helping with the satellite images analysis, Dr. Inés Camilloni for her assistance in the interpretation of meteorological and discharge anomalies, Servicio Meteorológico Nacional for providing the meteorological data, Subsecretaría de Puertos y Vías Navegables for the hydrological data and CONAE for the satellite images. We wish to thank the corrections and suggestions made by anonymous reviewers and the editor. The work presented here was financially supported by the CONICET (PIP 5355,167, PEI 6382), UBA (UBACYT ×195, X815) and ANCYPT (PICT 4502, 12332, 536).

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  1. Departamento de Ecología Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, C1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Inés O’Farrell, Irina Izaguirre, Griselda Chaparro, Rodrigo Sinistro, Haydée Pizarro, Patricia Rodríguez, Paula de Tezanos Pinto, Ruben Lombardo & Guillermo Tell

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas-Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomús (IIB-INTECH), Camino de Circunvalación Laguna Km 6, CC164 (B7130IWA), Chascomús, Argentina

    Fernando Unrein

  3. CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Inés O’Farrell, Irina Izaguirre, Fernando Unrein, Rodrigo Sinistro, Haydée Pizarro, Patricia Rodríguez, Paula de Tezanos Pinto, Ruben Lombardo & Guillermo Tell

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  1. Inés O’Farrell
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  2. Irina Izaguirre
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  3. Griselda Chaparro
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  4. Fernando Unrein
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  10. Guillermo Tell
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Correspondence to Inés O’Farrell.

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O’Farrell, I., Izaguirre, I., Chaparro, G. et al. Water level as the main driver of the alternation between a free-floating plant and a phytoplankton dominated state: a long-term study in a floodplain lake. Aquat Sci 73, 275–287 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-010-0175-2

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