Occurrence of the smallest phototrophic microorganisms (photoautotrophic picoplankton, APP) in Lake Balaton was discovered in the early 1980s. This triggered a series of systematic studies on APP and resulted in the setting of a unique long-term picoplankton dataset. In this review, we intend to summarize the obtained results and to give a new insight on APP ecology and diversity in Lake Balaton. According to the results, APP dynamics depends on trophic state, temperature, nutrient, and light availability, as well as grazing pressure. APP abundance in Lake Balaton decreased to a low level (1-2 × 105 cells mL-1) as a consequence of decreasing nutrient supply (oligotrophication) during the past more than two decades, and followed a characteristic seasonal dynamics with higher abundance values from spring to autumn than in winter. Concomitantly, however, the APP contribution to both phytoplankton biomass and primary production increased (up to 70% and 40-50%, respectively) during oligotrophication. Regarding annual pattern, picocyanobacteria are dominant from spring to autumn, while in winter, picoeukaryotes are the most abundant, most likely due to the different light and temperature optima of these groups. Within picocyanobacteria, single cells and microcolonies were both observed with mid-summer dominance of the latter which correlated well with the density of cladocerans. Community-level chromatic adaptation (i.e., dominance of phycoerythrin- or phycocyanin-rich forms) of planktonic picocyanobacteria was also found as a function of underwater light quality. Sequence analysis studies of APP in Lake Balaton revealed that both picocyanobacteria and picoeukaryotes represent a diverse and dynamic community consisting several freshwater genotypes (picocyanobacteria: Synechococcus, Cyanobium; picoeukaryotes: Choricystis, Stichococcus, Mychonastes, Nannochloris, and Nannochloropsis).
Keywords: Abundance; Contribution; Diversity; Picocyanobacteria; Picoeukaryotes; Primary production.
© 2020. The Author(s).