Seasonal variation in effects of urea and phosphorus on phytoplankton abundance and community composition in a hypereutrophic hardwater lake

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dc.contributor.authorSwarbrick, Vanessa J.
dc.contributor.authorQuiñones-Rivera, Zoraida J.
dc.contributor.authorLeavitt, Peter R.
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-28T17:53:05Z
dc.date.available2023-04-28T17:53:05Z
dc.date.issued2020-08-17
dc.description© 2020 The Authors. Freshwater Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.en_US
dc.description.abstract1. Urea accounts for half of global agricultural fertiliser applications, yet little is known of its role in eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems, nor how it interacts with phosphorus (P) in regulating phytoplankton composition, especially during spring and autumn. 2. To identify when and how urea and P inputs interact across the ice-free period, we conducted seven monthly fertilisation experiments in 3,240-L mesocosms from ice-off to ice-formation in a hypereutrophic lake. In addition, we ran bioassays with ammonium (NH 4 +) to compare the effects of urea with those of NH 4 +, the immediate product of chemical decomposition of urea. 3. Analysis of water-column chlorophyll a and biomarker pigments by high-perfor- mance liquid chromatography revealed that addition of inorganic P alone (100 μg P L–1 week–1) had no significant impact on either algal abundance or community composition in hypereutrophic Wascana Lake. Instead, fertilisation with urea (4 mg N L−1 week–1) alone, or in concert with P, significantly (p < 0.05) increased algal abundance in spring and much of summer, but not prior to ice formation in October. In particular, urea amendment enhanced abundance of cryptophytes, chlorophytes, and non-diazotrophic cyanobacteria during April and May, while fertilisation in summer and early autumn (September) increased only chlorophytes and non-diazotrophic cyanobacteria. 4. Comparison of urea mesocosms with NH 4 + bioassays demonstrated that urea lacked the inherent toxicity of NH 4 + in cool waters, but that both compounds stimulated production during summer experiments. 5. This study showed that urea pollution can degrade water quality in P-rich lakes across a variety of seasonal conditions, including spring, and underscores the im- portance of quantifying the timing and form of N inputs when managing P-rich freshwaters.en_US
dc.description.authorstatusFacultyen_US
dc.description.peerreviewyesen_US
dc.description.sponsorshiphis research was funded by grants to P.R.L. from NSERC Canada, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canada Research Chairs, the Province of Saskatchewan, University of Regina, and Queen's University Belfast.en_US
dc.identifier.citationSwarbrick, V. J., Quiñones‐Rivera, Z. J., & Leavitt, P. R. (2020). Seasonal variation in effects of urea and phosphorus on phytoplankton abundance and community composition in a hypereutrophic hardwater lake.Freshwater Biology, 65(10), 1765-1781. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13580en_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13580
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10294/15895
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherWileyen_US
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjectcyanobacteriaen_US
dc.subjecteutrophicationen_US
dc.subjectmanagementen_US
dc.subjectnitrogenen_US
dc.subjectwater qualityen_US
dc.titleSeasonal variation in effects of urea and phosphorus on phytoplankton abundance and community composition in a hypereutrophic hardwater lakeen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
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