Climate warming and cyanobacteria blooms: Looks at their relationships from a new perspective

Climate warming and eutrophication are regarded as two important contributors to the occurrence of cyanobacteria blooms in aquatic ecosystems. However, the feedback of cyanobacteria blooms to climate warming and eutrophication is not fully clear. In this study, a microcosm system was established to simulate the decomposition processes of cyanobacteria blooms. It was observed that a large amount of nitrogen and phosphorus was released into the overlying water, and the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus were increased with the amount of added cyanobacteria bloom biomass addition. Subsequently, these released nutrients became available for primary production and intensified the eutrophic state of freshwater lakes. During the decomposition of cyanobacteria blooms, the microenvironment acquired low DO, low pH, and reductive conditions. Together with abundant organic matter in the water column and sediment, a large amount of CH 4 and CO 2 produced through organic matter mineralization, in which CH 4 was the dominant fraction, occupied 50%–92% in mass of emitted carbon. Furthermore, a certain amount of N 2 O, probably underestimated, was produced with a strong greenhouse effect, even though its magnitude was small. These observations clarify that the feedbacks among cyanobacteria blooms formation and climate warming as well as the eutrophication of freshwater lakes are not unidirectional, but bidirectional. Given that climate warming enhanced the occurrence of cyanobacteria blooms, it was proposed that there are two vicious loops between cyanobacteria blooms, lake eutrophication and climate warming, which should be considered in the future management of aquatic ecosystems.