Summer phytoplankton of Serranía de Cuenca (central Spain)

Abstract

Since the number of studies on the phytoplankton of Serranía de Cuenca (central Spain) has been scarce, this is an attempt to increase our knowledge by describing the physico-chemistry, phytoplankton flora and biomass of seven stagnant environments in summer. They are located in a karstic depopulated area where abandonment of crops and livestock has resulted in decreasing human impacts. As a result, flagellate-rich taxa indicating clean waters are dominant, showing some rare species as well. Biomass is low and seemingly limited by phosphorus. These environments are worth of wider and detailed studies on its algal flora, which will probably result in the description of novel phytoplankton taxa and new records of rare species.