Investigation of phytoplankton community structure and formation mechanism: a case study of Lake Longhu in Jinjiang

Yongcan Jiang; Yi Wang; Zekai Huang; Bin Zheng; Yu Wen; Guanglong Liu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1267299

Investigation of phytoplankton community structure and formation mechanism: a case study of Lake Longhu in Jinjiang

Front Microbiol. 2023 Oct 5:14:1267299. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1267299. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yongcan Jiang^{1

2}, Yi Wang³, Zekai Huang⁴, Bin Zheng¹, Yu Wen¹, Guanglong Liu³

Affiliations

¹ PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation Ltd., Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
² College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
³ College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China.

Abstract

In order to explore the species composition, spatial distribution and relationship between the phytoplankton community and environmental factors in Lake Longhu, the phytoplankton community structures and environmental factors were investigated in July 2020. Clustering analysis (CA) and analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) were used to identify differences in phytoplankton community composition. Generalized additive model (GAM) and variance partitioning analysis (VPA) were further analyzed the contribution of spatial distribution and environmental factors in phytoplankton community composition. The critical environmental factors influencing phytoplankton community were identified using redundancy analysis (RDA). The results showed that a total of 68 species of phytoplankton were found in 7 phyla in Lake Longhu. Phytoplankton density ranged from 4.43 × 10⁵ to 2.89 × 10⁶ ind./L, with the average density of 2.56 × 10⁶ ind./L; the biomass ranged from 0.58-71.28 mg/L, with the average biomass of 29.38 mg/L. Chlorophyta, Bacillariophyta and Cyanophyta contributed more to the total density, while Chlorophyta and Cryptophyta contributed more to the total biomass. The CA and ANOSIM analysis indicated that there were obvious differences in the spatial distribution of phytoplankton communities. The GAM and VPA analysis demonstrated that the phytoplankton community had obvious distance attenuation effect, and environmental factors had spatial autocorrelation phenomenon, which significantly affected the phytoplankton community construction. There were significant distance attenuation effects and spatial autocorrelation of environmental factors that together drove the composition and distribution of phytoplankton community structure. In addition, pH, water temperature, nitrate nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand were the main environmental factors affecting the composition of phytoplankton species in Lake Longhu.

Keywords: environmental factors; formation mechanism; phytoplankton community; spatial distance; structural characteristics.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors would like to acknowledge the Researchers Supporting Project “Science and Technology Project of Huadong Engineering (Fujian) Corporation” (ZKY2022-FJ-02-02).