Recent cyanobacteria abundance in a large sub-tropical reservoir inferred from analysis of sediment cores

Salto Grande is a large South American reservoir on the border between Uruguay and Argentina that was impounded in 1979 and experiences recurrent, massive cyanobacteria blooms. A water-monitoring program was initiated 20 years after the dam was built, hence the causes and onset of cyanobacteria blooms remain poorly known. We collected two sediment cores from the old river channel in the reservoir (z = 17 m) and used physical, chemical and...