The Curonian Lagoon is the largest coastal lagoon of the Baltic Sea. The Curonian Lagoon is a
hypereutrophic water body beset with two major problems: eutrophication and algal blooms. Biological and
chemical data for the study of water eutrophication and algal blooms were collected from 4 sampling points in
the coastal and off-shore areas at distances of 1 km and 4–5 km from the Curonian Spit during the period from
April 2007 to November 2016. The ratio of mineral nitrogen/phosphorus forms created conditions for regular
Cyanobacteria hyperblooms during the summer and early autumn. Such blooms are followed by an increase
in the concentration of ammonia nitrogen, pH and BOD5, their values exceeding the threshold limits for fishery
water reservoirs. A distinct peak of chlorophyll a concentration was observed in the period of freshwater
Cyanobacteria hyperbloom from July to September or October. During the “hyperbloom” of Cyanobacteria,
their accumulation and decomposition, which was caused by a constant wind direction, also led to the local
oxygen deficit and fish mortality in the coastal zone. Chlorophyll a concentration was always at the level of
intensive bloom (10–100 μg/l) and over the period of 6 years (2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016) it reached
the hyperbloom state (above 100 μg/l). Water temperature appeared to be one of the key factors determining
seasonal and long–term variability in phytoplankton abundance and, therefore, the level of eutrophication in
the Curonian Lagoon.
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