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Cyanobacterial blooms in eutrophic freshwater is a global threat to the functioning of ecosystems, human health and the economy. Parties responsible for the ecosystems and human health increasingly demand reliable predictions of cyanobacterial development to support necessary decisions. Long-term data series help with identifying environmental drivers of cyanobacterial developments in the context of climatic and anthropogenic pressure. Here, we analyzed 13 years of eutrophication and climatic data of a shallow temperate reservoir showing a high interannual variability of cyanobacterial development and composition, which is a less occurring and/or less described phenomenon compared to recurrant monospecific blooms. While between 2007–2012 Planktothrix agardhii dominated the cyanobacterial community, it shifted towards Microcystis sp. and then Dolichospermum sp. afterwards (2013–2019). The shift to Microcystis sp. dominance was mainly influenced by generally calmer and warmer conditions. The later shift to Dolichospermum sp. was driven by droughts influencing, amongst others, the N-load, as P remained unchanged over the time period. Both, climatic pressure and N-limitation contributed to the high variability of cyanobacterial blooms and may lead to a new equilibrium. The further reduction of P-load in parallel to the decreasing N-load is important to suppress cyanobacterial blooms and ameliorate ecosystem health.

While the intracellular function of many toxic and bioactive cyanobacterial metabolites is not yet known, microcystins have been suggested to have a protective role in the cyanobacterial metabolism, giving advantage to toxic over nontoxic strains under stress conditions. The zooplankton grazer Daphnia reduce cyanobacterial dominance until a certain density, which may be supported by Daphnia exudates, affecting the cyanobacterial physiological state and metabolites’ production. Therefore, we hypothesized that D. magna spent medium will impact the production of cyanobacterial bioactive metabolites and affect cyanobacterial photosynthetic activity in the nontoxic, but not the toxic strain. Microcystin (MC-LR and des-MC-LR) producing M. aeruginosa PCC7806 and its non-microcystin producing mutant were exposed to spent media of different D. magna densities and culture durations. D. magna spent medium of the highest density (200/L) cultivated for the shortest time (24 h) provoked the strongest effect. D.magna spent medium negatively impacted the photosynthetic activity of M. aeruginosa PCC7806, as well as the dynamics of intracellular and extracellular cyanobacterial metabolites, while its mutant was unaffected. In the presence of Daphnia medium, microcystin does not appear to have a protective role for the strain. On the contrary, extracellular cyanopeptolin A increased in M. aeruginosa PCC7806 although the potential anti-grazing role of this compound would require further studies.