The Climate Factors of Eutrophication: History and Perspectives

Retrospective and current trends in the study of the relationship between climatic changes (using the leading weather factors—temperature and precipitation) and phytoplankton in lake ecosystems are considered. The positive effect of air and water temperature is important mainly only for small shallow water bodies. The presence of a sufficient concentration of nutrients in them is a prerequisite for the response of phytoplankton to an increase in temperature. The immediate reaction of phytoplankton to precipitation is negative. However, precipitation causes long-term effects, in particular, brownification, which has both positive and negative sides for the development of phytoplankton. The ecosystem’s response to different abiotic factors can be observed in different time scales. The effect of temperature and precipitation and their interaction with local conditions and features of the water body and catchment area as a whole are uncertain and contradictory. The way out of uncertainty should be the organization of long-term monitoring of small shallow lakes that are most sensitive to local weather manifestations of general climatic changes.