Bloom development and phytoplankton succession in Lake Winnipeg: a comparison of historical records with recent data

Over the past 40 years, hydroelectric, agricultural and urban watershed development and changing hydrology have transformed Lake Winnipeg into a highly eutrophic reservoir with annual outbreaks of widespread surface algal blooms, shoreline and net fouling, and concerns with intermittent cyanotoxin production. To provide a better understanding of the magnitude of these changes and the major causes, we examine long-term increases in phytoplankton biomass and shifts in phytoplankton species dominance in the context of both in-lake and watershed processes. We compare phytoplankton and water quality data from early (1969) and recent (1994–2007) lake-wide surveys, and information from paleolimnological analysis of sediment cores and satellite remote sensing. Our results demonstrate a recent and dramatic rise in severe algal blooms and increased dominance of cyanobacteria beginning in the mid-1990s, coincident with a large increase in phosphorous loading to the lake. Distinct increases in sediment core accumulat...