Temporal and spatial variation of Nitella furcata (Roxburgh ex Bruzelius) C. Agardh emend. R.D. Wood subsp. mucronata (A. Braun) R.D. Wood var. mucronata f. oligospira (A. Braun) R.D. Wood were studied at the Ninféias pond (23°38'18.9"S, 46°37'16.3"W), a tropical, shallow, mesotrophic reservoir located in the Parque Estadual das Fontes do Ipiranga Biological Reserve, Municipality of São Paulo, southeast Brazil. Water samples were collected monthly from October/1996 to October/1997 for turbidity, electric conductivity, pH, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, biomass, and algal phenology analysis. Spatial distribution pattern of algal biomass showed that all four sampling stations were similar among themselves during the whole study period. Regarding the temporal variation, greatest algal total biomass values (98.35-266.06 g.m-2) were measured during the rainy period whereas the smallest ones (48.86-170.56 g.m-2) were detected during the dry period. Algal population density peaked at all four sampling stations from October/1996 to April/1997 (rainy period) when the greatest values of air and water temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, turbidity, total nitrogen, and ammonium were measured allowing favorable conditions for the algal growth. Period from May/1997 (late fall) to October/1997 (early spring) was favorable to the development of reproductive structures (nucules and globules) with consequent decrease of algal biomass and population density, clearly suggesting the greatest energy allocation towards the development of sexual reproductive structures. This fact was confirmed by the canonic correspondence analysis that indicated strong correlation between nucules length and width, number of nucules per plant, and oospores length and width with the low values of pH and high ones of dissolved inorganic matter detected during the dry period. Consequently, environmental factors such as increasing of water temperature and nutrients availability at the Ninféias pond acted decisively towards growth and accumulation of algal biomass.
Charophyceae; biomass; phenology; aquatic macrophyte; Nitella
