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Habitat templates of phytoplankton functional groups in tropical reservoirs as a tool to understand environmental changes

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Abstract

Trait-based classifications can efficiently capture species’ responses to environmental gradients and their impacts on ecosystem functioning. Thus, the clustering of phytoplankton species into functional groups can improve the understanding of their relationships with the environment and help to predict their response to environmental changes. Accordingly, this study aimed to create habitat templates of Reynolds phytoplankton functional groups (RFGs) in tropical drinking water reservoirs to describe, explain, and predict their occurrence and formation of blooms. We analyzed the structure of RFGs in 10 tropical reservoirs, in humid and semiarid regions of Brazil, and defined their relationships with 10 environmental variables. We designated the habitat template based on niche differentiation, thresholds for the occurrences and bloom formation, cluster analyses, and generalized additive models. We identified 136 species, assembled in 20 RFGs. Six groups of habitat templates were recognized based on environmental conditions and dominant RFGs, usually represented by bloom-forming species of cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates, green algae, and diatoms. The functional groups D, X1, and P presented the most restrictive occurrences, while RFGs M and SN displayed the widest, occurring in almost all sets of conditions. Moreover, salinity was the best predictor of RFGs’ biomass (higher R2), followed by depth, soluble reactive phosphorus, irradiance, water transparency, and dissolved inorganic nitrogen. Our approach improves the understanding of how RFGs interact with environmental gradients in tropical reservoirs, helping water managers to adopt sustainable practices to control algal blooms, based on predictions of the future state of dominance.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Limnology Laboratory and Professor William Severi, from the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, for supporting nutrient analysis.

Funding

This work was supported by the Brazilian National Council of Technological and Scientific Development—CNPq, Brazil (Grant Number 305829/2019–0), and Fundação de Amparo a Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco—FACEPE, Brazil (Grant Number IBPG-0308–2.03/17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Graduate Program in Biodiversity, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco - UFRPE, Manoel de Medeiros Avenue, Dois IrmãosRecife, PE, 52171-900, Brazil

    Cihelio Alves Amorim & Ariadne do Nascimento Moura

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Üniversiteler Mahallesi, Dumlupınar Bulvarı, 60800, Ankara, Turkey

    Cihelio Alves Amorim

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  1. Cihelio Alves Amorim
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  2. Ariadne do Nascimento Moura
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CAA participated in the conceptualization, methodology development, validation, data curation, and formal analysis of all data, wrote the original draft, wrote, reviewed, and edited the final version of the manuscript. ANM participated in the conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition, methodology of all data, wrote, reviewed, and edited the final version of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cihelio Alves Amorim.

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Amorim, C.A., Moura, A.d.N. Habitat templates of phytoplankton functional groups in tropical reservoirs as a tool to understand environmental changes. Hydrobiologia 849, 1095–1113 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04750-3

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