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On the use of chemotaxonomy, a phytoplankton identification and quantification method based on pigment for quick surveys of subtropical reservoirs

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Abstract

Traditionally, composition and biomass of phytoplankton communities are determined by microscopy, but this method is time-consuming and so does not allow for high-frequency data acquisition across space and time. Pigment-based chemotaxonomy (CHEMTAX) is now widely applied to study of phytoplankton community structure on broader spatial and temporal scales of oceans, but the ability of this approach to provide estimates of phytoplankton assemblage in freshwater ecosystems is yet underdeveloped. To investigate the efficiency of the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-CHEMTAX in quantifying the different phytoplankton groups in inland freshwater, we present a comparison between phytoplankton pigment analyses by HPLC with CHEMTAX and microscopic counting of phytoplankton samples from four subtropical reservoirs in January and July 2014, respectively. The correlation between pigment and phytoplankton abundance detected by microscopy was stronger than that between pigment and phytoplankton biomass. The published marker pigments and their revised ratios can be used to describe phytoplankton abundances in a mixed community of freshwater phytoplankton, and pigment-based CHEMTAX can successfully describe the overall pattern of phytoplankton community dynamics during different seasons. The use of pigment-based CHEMTAX for quick surveys of phytoplankton communities can be recommended as a useful supplement or alternative tool to microscopy for freshwater ecosystem management.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Lei Wang from Xiamen University for his help in testing the pigment. We thank Y. Zhuang from the Second Institute of Oceanography, MNR, for guiding us to analyze the pigment data.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91851104, 41703074, 41901135, and 31370471) and the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (2019J02016).

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Author notes

  1. Xiaoqing Yu and Jun R. Yang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aquatic EcoHealth Group, Fujian Key Laboratory of Watershed Ecology, Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Xiaoqing Yu, Jun R. Yang, Alain Isabwe & Jun Yang

  2. Engineering Research Center of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland (Ministry of Education), College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, 434025, China

    Jun R. Yang

  3. College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Jixin Chen

Authors
  1. Xiaoqing Yu
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  5. Jun Yang
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Contributions

JY designed the research. JY contributed the reagents, materials, and analysis tools. JRY and XQY collected the samples. JRY identified and counted the phytoplankton taxa, while XQY and JXC performed the HPLC experiments. XQY, JRY, AI, and JY analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors discussed the interpretation of the results. All authors have agreed to authorship and have approved the manuscript submission.

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Correspondence to Jun Yang.

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Yu, X., Yang, J.R., Chen, J. et al. On the use of chemotaxonomy, a phytoplankton identification and quantification method based on pigment for quick surveys of subtropical reservoirs. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 3544–3555 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10704-4

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