Summary Microcystis is a cyanobacterium that forms toxic blooms in freshwater ecosystems around the world. Biological variation among taxa within the genus is apparent through genetic and phenotypic differences between strains and via the spatial and temporal distribution of strains in the environment, and this fine‐scale diversity exerts strong influence over bloom toxicity. Yet we do not know how varying traits of Microcysti...

Eutrophication remains a serious threat to Lake Erie and has accelerated over past decades due to human activity in the watershed. Internal phosphorus (P) loading from lake sediment contributes to eutrophication, but our understanding of this process in Lake Erie is more uncertain than for its riverine P inputs. Past study has focused on incubating sediment cores in oxic or anoxic conditions, meaning we know little about sedim...

The effects of resource stoichiometry and growth rate on the elemental composition of biomass have been examined in a wide variety of organisms, but the interaction among these effects is often overlooked. To determine how growth rate and resource imbalance affect bacterial carbon (C): nitrogen (N): phosphorus (P) stoichiometry and elemental content, we cultured two strains of aquatic heterotrophic bacteria in chemostats at a...

In September 2011, we investigated the distribution and composition of dissolved and particulate phosphorus (P) pools throughout Lake Superior, a large P‐limited freshwater ecosystem. Average seston particulate P (PP) concentrations in the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM; 85 ± 28 nmol L −1 ) were significantly greater than in the epilimnion (63 ± 22 nmol L −1 ). In contrast, average particulate organic carbon (POC) : PP (mol : m...