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The key environmental factors driving the succession of phytoplankton functional groups in Hongfeng Reservoir, southwest China

  • Ecology
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Abstract

Reservoirs are an important water source in many densely populated areas in southwest China. Phytoplankton play an essential role in maintaining the structure and function of reservoir ecosystems. Understanding the succession in phytoplankton communities and the factors driving it are essential for effective water quality management in drinking water reservoirs. In this study, water samples were collected monthly at the surface layers from March 2016 to December 2019 in Hongfeng Reservoir, southwest China. The relationship between functional group succession was analyzed based on nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis (NMDS), redundancy analysis (RDA), succession rate, and other analysis methods. The results showed distinct shifts in the community structure of phytoplankton functional groups within study period. The Cyclotella sp. was dominant in 2016 and 2017, and Pseudanabaena limnetica was the dominant group in 2018 and 2019. It appears that the phytoplankton composition and biomass are closely related to the water temperature and nutrient status in this reservoir. The results clearly showed that the permanganate index (CODMn) was the key factor of dramatic phytoplankton functional group succession, and the change in succession rates was closely caused by total nitrogen concentration (TN). Therefore, the succession pattern and key factors of Hongfeng Reservoir revealed in this study were important guidance for the management of drinking water reservoirs in southwest China. A reasonable limit on exogenous nutrient input should be a priority, especially in high water temperature period.

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Data Availability Statement

The data for this study are available through the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgment

We appreciate our colleagues for assisting with fieldwork and laboratory experiments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Area and Protection of Ecological Environment of Guizhou Province, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China

    Libin Han, Qiuhua Li, Wensheng Chen, Xing Wang & Shihui Zhou

  2. Guizhou International Science & Technology Cooperation Base-International Joint Research Centre for Aquatic Ecology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China

    Libin Han, Qiuhua Li, Xing Wang, Shihui Zhou, Mengshu Han & Anton Brancelj

  3. Key Laboratory for Information and Computing Science of Guizhou Province, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China

    Mengshu Han

  4. National Institute of Biology, Vecna pot 111, Ljubljana, 1000, Slovenia

    Anton Brancelj

Authors
  1. Libin Han
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  2. Qiuhua Li
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  3. Wensheng Chen
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  4. Xing Wang
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  5. Shihui Zhou
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  6. Mengshu Han
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  7. Anton Brancelj
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qiuhua Li.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U1612442), the Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province (Nos. [2020]6009, [2020]4Y009), and Anton Brancelj was supported by Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) (No. P1-0255)

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Han, L., Li, Q., Chen, W. et al. The key environmental factors driving the succession of phytoplankton functional groups in Hongfeng Reservoir, southwest China. J. Ocean. Limnol. 40, 1472–1484 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-021-1120-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-021-1120-z

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