Fatores abióticos que influenciam a comunidade fitoplanctônica em reservatórios tropicais de pequeno porte

Abstract

Tropical regions are characterized by low annual thermal amplitude and rainfall variations are an important driver of phytoplankton biomass changes through the regulation of water physicochemical variables. In these regions, it is often the presence of small ecosystems (106-108m3). It presents higher volume variations, whose effects should influence the community. This work aimed to study the influence of twenty four abiotic variables – physical and chemical of water, as well as climatic - on the phytoplankton community of eleven small tropical aquatic ecosystems located in wet and semi-arid regions of Pernambuco State (Northeast, Brazil), considering the location of the ecosystem and the influence of climatic events, such as El Niño, on these variables. In this context, we intended to prove the following hypotheses: 1) the phytoplankton community is influenced by different predictive variables as a function of climate and that their isolated and synergistic contributions differ between ecosystems with As and BSh climate; 2) El Niño promotes modifications in abiotic and biotic variables that differ depending on the climatic type in which the ecosystem is inserted. The research resulted in the elaboration of two articles. In the first, the influence of water physicchemical and climate on the phytoplankton community in As and BSh ecosystems was evaluated. We concluded that nutrients, mainly micronutrients, regulate the communities in both ecosystems, however the influence varies according to the climate. Higher percentages of biomass variation were found in semi-arid environments. The second manuscript assessed the influence of the El Niño 2015/2016 on abiotic variables (physicochemical and climatic) and phytoplankton morphofunctional groups in wet and semi-arid climate ecosystems. The results allowed to conclude that the climatic changes during El Niño 2015/2016 promoted changes in the water physicochemical variables in the semi-arid ecosystems, which favored the growth of centric diatoms species and decreased the dominance of filamentous cyanobacteria due to changes in sulfate concentrations. Significant influence of El Niño was not observed in phytoplankton morphofunctional groups of wet ecosystems. The study revealed the importance of the climatic type where the ecosystem is inserted, as well as the El Niño on the influence of abiotic variables on the phytoplankton of small tropical reservoirs.