Invasion of Ceratium furcoides in subtropical lakes in Uruguay: Environmental drivers and fish kill record during its bloom

The invasive freshwater dinoflagellate Ceratium furcoides is extending its distribution in South America with increasing environmental impacts associated bloom. We here report two events related to C. expansion Uruguay: (1) the main drivers (physical and chemical factors, extreme wind zooplankton composition) of first appearance bloom 2012 a subtropical eutrophic shallow lake (Lake Blanca, Uruguay); (2) fish kill event Prochilodus lineatus observed during 2016 deep (Puente de las Americas, Uruguay). Lake Blanca started spring (December) after clear water period high phytoplankton species replacement cyanobacterial Raphidiopsis raciborskii. Extreme this may have initiated by enhanced cysts resuspension from sediments. High nutrient availability low grazing, further allowed expand reach over 96% biomass. In Puente we registered large-sized benthic furcoides. This caused oxygen depletion hypolimnion gills these exhibited massive accumulations cells compared ones collected non-bloom conditions. Concurring other studies our results suggest that likely P. asphyxia. Our study earliest register Uruguay (in 2012) discusses potential effects lakes.