A 150-year record of phytoplankton community succession controlled by hydroclimatic variability in a tropical lake

Climate and human-induced environmental change promotes biological regime shifts between alternate stable states, with implications for ecosystem resilience, function and services. While this has been shown for recent microbial communities, the long-term response of microbial communities has not been investigated in detail. This study investigated the decadal variations in phytoplankton communities in a ~150 year long sedimentary archive of Lake Nong Thale Prong (NTP), southern Thailand using a combi nation of DNA and lipid biomarkers techniques. Reconstructed drier climate from ~1857-1916 Common Era (CE) coincided with oligotrophic lake water conditions and dominance of the green algae Botryococcus braunii, producing characteristic botryococcene lipids. A change to higher silica (Si) input ~1916 CE, which was related to increased rainfall concurs with an abrupt takeover by diatom blooms lasting for 50 years. Since the 1970s more eutrophic conditions prevailed, which was likely caused by increased levels of anthropogenic phosphate (P), aided by increased lake stratification caused by somewhat dryer conditions. The eutrophic conditions led to increased primary productivity consisting again of a Botryococcus sp., though this time not producing the botryococcene lipids. Moreover, Cyanobacteria became dominant. Our results indicate that a combined DNA and lipid biomarker approach provides an efficient way to allow tracking centennial-scale hydroclimate and anthropogenic feedback processes in lake ecosystems.