Small lakes and ponds occupy an enormous surface area of inland freshwater and represent an important terrestrial-water interface. Disturbances caused by extreme weather events can have substantial effects on these ecosystems. Here, we analysed the dynamics of nutrients and the entire plankton community in two flood events and afterwards, when quasi-stable conditions were established, to investigate the effect of such disturbances on a small forest pond. We show that floodings result in repeated washout of resident organisms and hundredfold increases in nutrient load. Despite this, the microbial community recovers to a predisturbance state within two weeks of flooding through four well-defined succession phases. Reassembly of phytoplankton and especially zooplankton takes up to two times longer and features repetitive and adaptive patterns. Release of dissolved nutrients from the pond is associated with inflow rates and community recovery, and returns to predisturbance levels before microbial compositions recover. Our findings shed light on the mechanisms underlying functional resilience of small waterbodies and are relevant to global change-induced increases in weather extremes.

Berlin Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research Berlin Germany

Department of Experimental Limnology Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Biology and Inland Fisheries Stechlin Germany

Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia České Budějovice Czech Republic

Institute of Biochemistry and Biology Potsdam University Potsdam Germany

Institute of Hydrobiology Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences České Budějovice Czech Republic

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