Insight into how environmental change determines the production and distribution of cyanobacterial toxins is necessary for risk assessment. Management guidelines currently focus on hepatotoxins (microcystins). Increasing attention is given to other classes, such as neurotoxins (e.g., anatoxin-a) and cytotoxins (e.g., cylindrospermopsin) due to their potency. Most studies examine the relationship between individual toxin variants and environmental factors, such as nutrients, temperature and light. In summer 2015, we collected samples across Europe to investigate the effect of nutrient and temperature gradients on the variability of toxin production at a continental scale. Direct and indirect effects of temperature were the main drivers of the spatial distribution in the toxins produced by the cyanobacterial community, the toxin concentrations and toxin quota. Generalized linear models showed that a Toxin Diversity Index (TDI) increased with latitude, while it decreased with water stability. Increases in TDI were explained through a significant increase in toxin variants such as MC-YR, anatoxin and cylindrospermopsin, accompanied by a decreasing presence of MC-LR. While global warming continues, the direct and indirect effects of increased lake temperatures will drive changes in the distribution of cyanobacterial toxins in Europe, potentially promoting selection of a few highly toxic species or strains.

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The aim of this research is to test the Q phytoplankton assemblage index based on phytoplankton functional groups in Lake Mogan and to provide a quality state estimation by data from 2006. Phytoplankton was sampled at 2 stations of the lake, paralleled with physical (water temperature, Secchi depth, pH, conductivity) and chemical (DO, chlorophyll-a, alkalinity, total hardness, soluble reactive phosphorus, total phosphorus, NO 2 -N, NO 3 -N, NH 3 -N) analyses. The Q index was able to follow the main seasonal changes of the physical and chemical parameters and indicated a moderate ecological status for Lake Mogan. Phytoplankton biomass varied between 0.75 and 10.12 mg/L in the research period, and provided a similar ecological state by Q index, chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus, and Secchi depth. A total of 76 phytoplankton species were identified in the study period, belonging to 12 functional groups. The seasonal succession of dominant functional groups followed this sequence of coda:

Under ongoing climate change and increasing anthropogenic activity, which continuously challenge ecosystem resilience, an in-depth understanding of ecological processes is urgently needed. Lakes, as providers of numerous ecosystem services, face multiple stressors that threaten their functioning. Harmful cyanobacterial blooms are a persistent problem resulting from nutrient pollution and climate-change induced stressors, like poor transparency, increased water temperature and enhanced stratification. Consistency in data collection and analysis methods is necessary to achieve fully comparable datasets and for statistical validity, avoiding issues linked to disparate data sources. The European Multi Lake Survey (EMLS) in summer 2015 was an initiative among scientists from 27 countries to collect and analyse lake physical, chemical and biological variables in a fully standardized manner. This database includes in-situ lake variables along with nutrient, pigment and cyanotoxin data of 369 lakes in Europe, which were centrally analysed in dedicated laboratories. Publishing the EMLS methods and dataset might inspire similar initiatives to study across large geographic areas that will contribute to better understanding lake responses in a changing environment.

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