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Seasonal change in a saline temporary lake (Fuente de Piedra, southern Spain)

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Abstract

Fuente de Piedra saline lake is located in an endorheic basin in the south of Spain. This lake is very shallow (0.5 m max. depth during 1987–88) and relatively large (± 1350 ha). It is a temporary playa lake, showing irregular cycles, with frequent seasonal drought and a high degree of unpredictability. The lake was sampled monthly during a relatively rainy year (1987–88, 10.5 months permanence). The result of combined analyses for environmental variables (salinity, temperature and soluble inorganic forms of nitrogen and phosphorus), variables related to biological activity (chlorophyll ‘a’, sediment organic matter and redox potential) and the direct analysis of the planktonic community, shows the existence of two periods of dominance by autotrophs. The first occurs during winter, exhibits a progressively higher surface to volume ratio for phytoplankton and is followed in the spring by high zooplankton densities (Moina salina, Fabrea salina) and very low phytoplankton densities, suggesting the existence of a period with a detritus-based food web. The summer period coincides with a community better adapted to high salinities that is dominated by Dunaliella salina, D. viridis, diatoms and the ciliate Fabrea salina, and associated with high ammonium concentrations. A new period of organic matter accumulation could be facilitated, in the last moments before the lake dries, by a progressive decrease in zooplankton abundance.

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  1. Carlos M. García

    Present address: Dpto. Biología, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, 11510, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain

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  1. Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus Universitario de Teatinos, 29071, Malaga, Spain

    Carlos M. García & F. X. Niell

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  1. Carlos M. García
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García, C.M., Niell, F.X. Seasonal change in a saline temporary lake (Fuente de Piedra, southern Spain). Hydrobiologia 267, 211–223 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00018803

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