Abstract

This study analyses the water quality and microalgae composition of an artificial reservoir in the Mexican basin called La Cantera, built in 2005. Thirteen years later (2018) it shows a change in both its chemistry and microalgae structure and a visible deterioration (eutrophication) due to several nearby internal academic and anthropogenic activities. This study has therefore assessed water quality by measuring concentrations of nitrogenated and phosphorus total inorganic nutrients (>500µM and 120µM, respectively) that showed an evident eutrophication. During our seven-year sampling period we found the following composition and predominance of algae of the taxa: Bacillariophyceae, Cyanoprokaryota and Chlorophyta. Results showed a predominance of the first biological taxa with nine indicative species of different contamination types with a preponderance of Navicula, and two in the case of the second taxa with a predominance of Microscystis.

Keywords

La Cantera, artificial reservoir, eutrophication, bacillariophyceae