What is it about?
Eutrophication promotes toxic cyanobacterial blooms in freshwaters. Using an experimental approach we underscored the role of the nutrients nitrogen and phophorus in explaining blooms persistence. We measured physiological responses of the organisms under different nutritional conditions. Our results highlight the importance of reducing both nitrogen and phosphorus in eutrophic ecosystems under mitigation and restoration programs.
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Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Although phoshorus and nitrogen are two major nutrients in the regulation of phytoplankton growth, phosphorus is the most limiting one. Historically, water quality restoration programs were focused on reducing the phosphorus load. However, our results (based on physiological experiments) strongly support a new trend demonstrating that N and P must be controlled to successfully control cyanobacterial blooms.
Perspectives
Writing this article as a co-author was a great pleasure because I had the opportunity to work with a colleague with whom I have had long standing collaborations. It was very exciting to find new information from the eco-physiological side with great implications for water management.
Professor Sylvia Bonilla
Universidad de la Republica Uruguay
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Regulation of phosphate uptake reveals cyanobacterial bloom resilience to shifting N:P ratios, Freshwater Biology, January 2018, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/fwb.13066.
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