Water quality of Lake Sanabria according to phytoplankton. A comparison with historical data

Lake Sanabria is a Spanish lake that holds the largest volume of water in the country. It is a terminal moraine, monomictic, acidic lake that is typically oligotrophic to oligo-mesotrophic. The current situation of the lake was assessed using phytoplankton data from the growing seasons of 2013. In addition, data from the 1980s were used to evaluate any variation from former conditions. The planktonic communities were analyzed using biomass measurements (Chlorophyll-a and biovolume) and several composition metrics (IGA, PTSI, PTI and IGA2). Considering the applicable Spanish legislation for ecological quality assessment, the ecological status in 2013 was High. According to both the biomass and composition metrics, no change in the trophic status was apparent, although there was some evidence of a shift in species contribution to biomass from the 1980s samples to the current ones. The shift from cyanobacterial taxa to diatoms was one of the changes observed, but this does not necessarily imply a change in the trophic status.