Phytoplankton of the Murmansk lakes in the urbanized territories water quality assessment

Abstract

The first comprehensive studies of phytoplankton of the Murmansk lakes have been carried out. Significant differences in the species composition and structure of algae and cyanoprokaryotes communities comparing with references were revealed. In some lakes, an annual change in the dominant taxa was observed, which reflects a high degree of destabilization of the aquatic ecosystems. The main reason for the observed changes should be considered a sharp change in hydrochemical parameters, primarily – the concentration of nutrients dynamics, because of anthropogenic water pollution. A significant factor is also the toxic effect of a number of trace elements, including heavy metals; the concentration in the water of the studied reservoirs can be many times higher than the references. Cyanoprokaryotes are dominated in Semenovskoye Lake, and bloom-causing potentially toxic species have been revealed. A high bioindicative potential of phytoplankton communities in the urbanized territories of the Arctic zone was noted, which must be taken into account when solving the problems of assessing water quality and normalizing the anthropogenic load on water resources.