On the annual cycle of the blue-green alga Microcystis Aeruginosa Kütz. Emend. Elenkin

Abstract

A 4 year series of field, light-microscope and ultrastructural observations is presented to illustrate biological aspects of the annual cycle of natural Microcystis populations enclosed in Lund tubes. Nine morphological stati, all referable to M. aeruginosa f. aeruginosa, feature at various stages of the cycle. Summer bloom-forming populations originate from vegetative colonial stock that overwinters on the bottom sediment each year, but there is no mass transfer of these colonies to the water column: intensive growth from individual cells in the old colonies leads to the formation of new infective colonies, being stimulated when the bottom water approaches anoxia and light penetrates to the bottom sediments. Growth is slow but the developing populations sustain only minor losses through grazing and settling out, eventually becoming dominant over other species. Allelopathy possibly contributes to this effect. In postmaximal populations, several mechanisms can contribute to net buoyancy loss and a (usually) rapid recruitment of vegetative colonies to the sediments is observed. Hypotheses are advanced to account for the observed behaviour, and some of these have been tested in the laboratory. The apparent physiological flexibility of Microcystis seems well suited to growth and survival in the microenvironments encountered in eutrophic lakes.