Variação temporal de uma comunidade fitoplanctônica do reservatório de APM-Manso através de modelagem ecológica tridimensional.

Abstract

The ecology of reservoirs has assumed prominence in Brazil. This study explored the application of a tridimensional ecological modeling on phytoplankton dynamics, in Manso reservoir, simulating the temporal variation of phytoplankton community in two different scenarios of nutrient loading. CAEDYM was coupled to ELCOM, and the simulation was conducted in two stages: one hydrodynamic and other ecological. It was chosen for the simulation the period of five months, from Septemper 1th, 2005. Were constructed two scenarios: the first containing the actual values of nutrient loading of the main river measured in field, and the second with a reduction in nutrient load, simulating a possible replacement process to grazing areas from forested areas in the Manso River basin. The simulation showed rapid responses of phytoplankton to nutritional availability, and the results obtained corroborated with several theories about phytoplankton adaptive strategies and their dynamics. Among the simulated classes, Bacillariophyceae and Cryptophyceae were more sensitive to load reduction, while Chlorophyceae and Cyanophyceae suffered less from the impact, suggesting that they are more adapted to nutrient limitation. Rain positively influenced the growth rates of Bacillariophyceae only in Scenario 1, since the limitation of nutrients was more decisive for this class in Scenario 2. It was observed in both simulations a trend of replacing the dominance of Cyanophyceae with Chlorophyceae.