1Limnological description of the Tarelo lagoon (SW Spain).

The lagoon of Tarelo (SW, Spain) is a permanent aquatic system located near the estuary of the Guadalquivir River. The water quality of this lagoon was poor during the study period (January 2001-August 2002): the high water turbidity hindered the growth of submersed aquatic macrophytes and the bottom water was depleted of dissolved oxygen in spring-summer despite the mixing created by the wind. The concentration of planktonic chlorophyll a ranged from 74.2 to 330.7 µg l-1 in the surface water and from 34.8 to 256.2 µg l-1 in the bottom water. The blooms of cyanobacteria (>106 cells ml-1) were frequent and con-tributed to the generation of episodic anoxia in the water column. Consequently, the number of both planktonic and benthonic taxa were very low. Two taxa of cyanobacteria, Aphanocapsa holsatica and Microcystis sp., occurred with an average relative abundance>30%. The most commonly found taxa were Oscillatoria sp., Oocystis sp., Oscillatoria limnetica, Chroococcus sp. and Monoraphidium circinalle. Population explosions (>2000 ind l-1) were common in rotifers such as Brachionus plicatilis and Keratella tropica. The density of Chironomus plumosus in the sediment surface declined abruptly when oxygen was scar-ce. The temporal variability of nutrient concentrations ranged from event-scale pulses to seasonal time scales. Nitrogen follo-wed a seasonal pattern of loading in winter and depletion in summer, whereas the availability of o-P in the water oscillated in pulses. The concentration of o-P in the interstitial water of the sediment peaked intermittently during the study period and it was positively correlated with the concentration of o-P in the bottom-water (r=0.698, P<0.05). On average, the concentration