Production Capacity of Phytoplankton Under Different Trophic Conditions in the Naroch Lakes, Belarus
摘要
Based on long-term monitoring of the water bodies of the Naroch Lakes ecosystem (Belarus), we assessed the gross primary production (GPP) and the growth rate of phytoplankton under conditions of various nutrient loads. To estimate the growth rate of phytoplankton, we used both the ratio of primary production to biomass (P/B) and the results of mathematical modeling using the knowledge-and-data-driven (KDD) approach. Both estimates, the P/B ratio, and the results of the KDD approach turned out to be well consistent with each other. We identified periods of high (1978–1986) and low (2006–2018) phosphorus concentrations in lake water. Gross primary production of plankton naturally increased with increasing phosphorus load, while no relationship between the nutrient load and the phytoplankton growth rate was found. In the period between 1987 and 2005, the invasive filter-feeding zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha colonized the Naroch Lakes. During the Dreissena polymorpha invasion, changes in the photosynthetic capacity of phytoplankton were clearly manifested.