Responses of benthic diatoms to waters affected by post-fire contamination

Effects of wildfire ash from native and alien plants on phytoplankton biomass

“…In aquatic ecosystems, phytoplankton has the greatest contribution towards total primary production, forming the basic support for aquatic food webs (Ezekiel et al, 2011). Numerous studies (e.g., Silva et al, 2015;Kramer et al, 2020;Vidal et al, 2021) have reported both beneficial and harmful effects of wildfire ash on the phytoplankton composition and biomass due to its chemical composition. Among ash properties, nitrate and phosphates are widely reported to facilitate aquatic plant growth and pose a severe risk of eutrophication within aquatic environments, thus bolstering primary productivity (Pinto et al, 2004;Smith et al, 2011;Vajda et al, 2020).…”