An abiotic typology and reference conditions for nutrients and chlorophyll-a in subtropical reservoirs (São Paulo State, Brazil)

The establishment of reference conditions and typology are two important steps in water resources management. The reference conditions enable the determination of how impacted an ecosystem is, while the typology facilitates the implementation of management procedures. A study of subtropical reservoirs in São Paulo State (Brazil) was performed to obtain (1) an abiotic typology, using principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (Ward’s method with Euclidean distances), and (2) reference conditions for total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) in the dry and rainy seasons for one of the established typologies. Two main statistical techniques were used: the lake population distribution approach and the trisection method. PCA identified an environmental gradient in the east-west direction, with reservoirs at higher latitudes and with larger dimensions in the west, and smaller reservoirs in eastern areas with higher altitude and higher average annual rainfall. The PCA and cluster analysis indicated that there were four main types of reservoirs. The nutrient criteria techniques, obtained for 13 type I rainy-east reservoirs, were not significantly different (t test, p < 0.05). Although the methods resulted in similar reference conditions, one-way ANOVA indicated significant differences between the seasons for Chl-a, which levels were slightly higher in the rainy season. As far as we know, this is the first study to simultaneously provide an abiotic typology and reference conditions for chlorophyll-a and nutrients in different seasons, considering subtropical reservoirs in South America. This investigation makes an important contribution to the monitoring and management of subtropical reservoirs, and the promotion of dialog between the scientific community and managers, aiming at ensuring the sustainability of water bodies.