Occurrence of Freshwater Cyanobacteria and Bloom Records in Spanish Reservoirs (1981–2017)

Abstract

Cyanobacterial blooms constitute a global environmental concern, with sometimes serious implications for human and animal health. Consequently, they represent a major problem in the management of water and aquatic ecosystems. The design of good quality control and management programs is therefore imperative and, for this, a good understanding of the state of the art becomes essential. In Spain, information related to freshwater cyanobacteria is somewhat scattered. Thus, the main objective of this work is to gather all the available information related to cyanobacteria in Spanish artificial water bodies (reservoirs), with special attention to episodes of massive proliferation and probable toxic events. Data for this review were obtained from scientific papers, technical reports, and from the websites of the different Spanish basin organizations. From the review carried out, it is relevant that: cyanobacteria species have been recorded in 252 of the 988 existing reservoirs and blooms in 91 of them (most of them destined for water supply), potentially toxic cyanobacteria are widespread, and that occurrence of blooms has increased recently. The latter could be attributed to a spread monitoring effort. Nevertheless, the effect of the increasing eutrophication and climate change should not be underestimated. In addition to the data compilation, the relation between the cyanobacteria recorded in the Spanish water reservoirs and the geological area where the reservoirs are located has been analyzed.