Phytoplankton in deep Italian lakes: introductory remarks

• Published in: Journal of limnology 2002-01, Vol.61 (1), p.93-94
• Main Author: Ruggiu, D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Freshwater
• ISSN: 1129-5767; 1723-8633
• DOI: 10.4081/jlimnol.2002.91

First of all we want to recognize patterns, i.e. typical, repeated configurations of objects and events, and, when occurring, sudden events or slow or sudden transition stages. The key point is that such facts must be unquestionably proven if they are to be of any value, because, while carrying important information in themselves, they are the basic stuff from which speculations, hypotheses and whatsoever concerning the functioning of the system is made. We shall therefore ascertain if more generalisations on characteristics or behaviour of algal assemblages can be made (meaning rigorously proven) over the entire set of DSL, or at least in part of them, through an analysis to be presented in a final, synoptical paper in the next issue of this Journal. The second purpose is connected with the first and with a more difficult question, i.e. the ability to predict which species will form an assemblage, and possibly their growth state (e.g. blooms), at a specific time in given environments or part of them. Indeed, this part of our investigation was chiefly inspired by Reynolds' achievements. Working mostly in the English Lake District, he was able to identify over the years a high number of phytoplankton assemblages demonstrably typical of many diversified environmental situations, like nutrient availability and trophic state of lakes, their morphology and hydrology, thermal and mixing regime, time of the year and so on.It is likelier, or so we believe, that different lake districts will exhibit their own associations, and this we will try to ascertain in the final paper, at least tentatively, for the deep subalpine lake district in Italy.