Effects of temperature and macronutrients on phytoplankton communities across three largely different lakes identified by a time–space trade-off approach

• Elevated temperature contributes to greater Microcystis dominance in blooms.
• Phytoplankton community varies temporally along with nutrient variations.
• Time–space trade-off is a promising method to discover information in short datasets.

The impacts of temperature and eutrophication on Cyanobacteria blooms were investigated thorugh a time–space trade-off approach. The limnological data of three Lakes, Taihu, Yanghe and Miyun, monitored from 2010 to 2012 were used. After categorising the three lakes by trophic state and water temperature, the study tested: (1) the response of phytoplankton to elevated temperature, by comparing Lakes Taihu and Yanghe, which are different in climate but similar in trophic state; and (2) the response of phytoplankton to higher nutrient concentrations, by comparing Lakes Yanghe and Miyun, which are different in trophic state but similar in climate. Results clearly showed that water temperature was the principle factor contributing to the higher abundance of Microcystis in Lake Taihu compared to Lake Yanghe. By contrast, higher abundance of Microcystis in Lake Yanghe compared to Lake Miyun could be clearly associated with higher nutrient levels in Lake Yanghe, supported by findings of PO4-P limitation in Lake Miyun. The study demonstrated that time–space trade-off is a promising approach to manipulate short datasets from different lakes to discover meaningful information.