Phytoplankton periodicity: the interactions of form, function and environmental variability

SUMMARY. 1. This review considers the periodic cycles of species dominance in a wide selection of temperate lakes. By ascribing individual species to assemblages, a high incidence of similarity among periodic cycles is demonstrated. Reference to lakes at high and low latitudes, as well as to rivers, shows conformity to parts of the same broad patterns. 2. The role of population dynamics in shaping community structure is emphasized. Two types of change are recognized: autogenic, undirectional subsequences (successions), regulated by specific responses to critically changing resource‐ratio gradients; and allogenic changes, regulated by variability in the physical environment. 3. Analysis of the responses of representative species to allogenic change permits further grouping of the assemblages. These groupings coincide with clear morphological distinctions among the same phytoplankton species according to their unit sizes and surface area/volume ratios. 4. It is argued that these properties condition the physiological responses of algae to seasonal variations in temperature, mixing and exposure to the underwater light field. The responses are compounded by relative resistances to loss processes (sinking, grazing), by short‐term photosynthetic adaptation and vertical migratory behaviour. 5. Graphical summaries are presented that relate the morphologically‐, physiologically‐ and behaviourally‐mediated responses to a hierarchy of physical, chemical and biotic environmental variables. Phytoplankton periodicity is the outcome of these interactions.