Effects of water quality changes on phytoplankton and lesser flamingo Phoeniconaias minor populations at Kamfers Dam, a saline wetland near Kimberley, South Africa

Abstract

Kamfers Dam, a wetland near Kimberley, South Africa, supports a population of Near Threatened lesser flamingos Phoeniconaias minor. The cyanobacterium Arthrospira fusiformis (Voronikhin) Komarek and Lund 1990, the flamingos’ food source, was in bloom in April 2009. The city's wastewater treatment plant discharges partially treated and untreated sewage directly into Kamfers Dam, creating elevated water levels, poor water quality and hypereutrophication. Subsequently, a crash in the A. fusiformis population compromised the lesser flamingos’ food source. The water quality and algal community of Kamfers Dam were monitored using historical water quality data plus water quality analyses from 2009 to 2011. Conductivity, pH, sodium, chloride and total dissolved salts showed significant decreases over time. Spearman rank correlation was used to measure relationships among physico-chemical parameters and densities of algae. Arthrospira fusiformis was positively correlated with conductivity (Spearman ρ = 0.561, p = 0.029), total dissolved salts (Spearman ρ = 0.572, p = 0.026) and negatively correlated with total phosphorus (Spearman ρ = −0.718, p = 0.003). While significant correlations were found, attempts to develop a model for predicting algal community composition were unsuccessful due to strong multicollinearity among the water chemistry parameters.