Rapid Changes in the Phytoplankton Community of a Subtropical, Shallow, Hypereutrophic Lake During the Rainy Season

Osiris Díaz-Torres; José de Anda; Ofelia Yadira Lugo-Melchor; Adriana Pacheco; Danielle A Orozco-Nunnelly; Harvey Shear; Carolina Senés-Guerrero; Misael Sebastián Gradilla-Hernández

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.617151

Rapid Changes in the Phytoplankton Community of a Subtropical, Shallow, Hypereutrophic Lake During the Rainy Season

Front Microbiol. 2021 Mar 9:12:617151. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.617151. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Osiris Díaz-Torres¹, José de Anda², Ofelia Yadira Lugo-Melchor¹, Adriana Pacheco³, Danielle A Orozco-Nunnelly⁴, Harvey Shear⁵, Carolina Senés-Guerrero⁶, Misael Sebastián Gradilla-Hernández⁶

Affiliations

¹ Centro de Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco, A.C., Unidad de Servicios Analiticos y Metrologicos, Guadalajara, Mexico.
² Departamento de Tecnologia Ambiental, Centro de Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco, A.C., Zapopan, Mexico.
³ Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingenieria y Ciencias, Monterrey, Mexico.
⁴ Department of Biology, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN, United States.
⁵ Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto-Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
⁶ Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingenieria y Ciencias, Zapopan, Mexico.

Abstract

Lake Cajititlán is a small, shallow, subtropical lake located in an endorheic basin in western Mexico. It is characterized by a strong seasonality of climate with pronounced wet and dry seasons and has been classified as a hypereutrophic lake. This eutrophication was driven by improperly treated sewage discharges from four municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and by excessive agricultural activities, including the overuse of fertilizers that reach the lake through surface runoff during the rainy season. This nutrient rich runoff has caused algal blooms, which have led to anoxic or hypoxic conditions, resulting in large-scale fish deaths that have occurred during or immediately after the rainy season. This study investigated the changes in the phytoplankton community in Lake Cajititlán during the rainy season and the association between these changes and the physicochemical water quality and environmental parameters measured in the lake's basin. Planktothrix and Cylindrospermopsis were the dominant genera of the cyanobacterial community, while the Chlorophyceae, Chrysophyceae, and Trebouxiophyceae classes dominated the microalgae community. However, the results showed a significant temporal shift in the phytoplankton communities in Lake Cajititlán induced by the rainy season. The findings of this study suggest that significant climatic variations cause high seasonal surface runoff and rapid changes in the water quality (Chlorophyll-a, DO, NH₄ ⁺, and NO₃ ^-) and in variations in the composition of the phytoplankton community. Finally, an alternation between phosphorus and nitrogen limitation was observed in Lake Cajititlán during the rainy season, clearly correlating to the presence of Planktothrix when the lake was limited by phosphorus and to the presence of Cylindrospermopsis when the lake was limited by nitrogen. The evidence presented in this study supports the idea that the death of fish in Lake Cajititlán could be mainly caused by anoxia, caused by rapid changes in water quality during the rainy season. Based on our review of the literature, this is the first study on the phytoplankton community in a subtropical lake during the rainy season using high throughput 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing.

Keywords: Lake Cajititlán; cyanobacteria; fish mortality; limiting nutrient; microalgae; microcystin; physicochemical and environmental parameters.