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Spatio-temporal variability of periphytic protozoa related to environment in the Niyang River, Tibet, China

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Abstract

The Niyang River, a main tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River, is an important and typical plateau river ecosystem in Tibet, China. At present, few studies have focused on its aquatic living resources and river ecology. In this study, the composition, abundance, and diversity of periphytic protozoa were investigated across four seasons from 2008 to 2009 to better understand their spatio-temporal patterns and relationship to the environment. Our investigation shows that periphytic protozoa in the Niyang River contained 15 genera, belonged to Tubulinea, Alveolata, Discosea and Rhizaria, Alveolata possessed most genera, up to nine, with highest share in abundance, exceeding 50%, Difflugia and Glaucoma were dominant genera. Moreover, four diversity indices of periphytic protozoa, including species richness, total abundance, Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou’s evenness index, displayed a significant descending trend as the seasons continued, in the order of winter, spring, summer and autumn; with a significant difference existing between winter and summer (or autumn) for Shannon-Wiener diversity index and species richness (P<0.05). Four of these diversity indices also presented a V-shaped pattern between the upper middle course of the Niyang River and the confluence of the Niyang River and Yarlung Zangbo River, with the lowest value occurred in the middle course of the Niyang River. However, no significant variation was found through the Niyang River (P>0.05). In addition, canonical correlation analysis (CCA) shows that the densities of Difflugia, Glaucomais, Enchelydium, Cyphoderia, and Enchelys correlate with water temperature, alkalinity, hardness, pH, and dissolved oxygen, respectively. Lastly, the relationship between periphytic protozoa diversity and the environmental factors of the Niyang River can be predicted using classification and regression trees (CART) annalysis, which suggests that the total abundance and Shannon-Wiener diversity index would be higher when the elevation is above 3 308 m. On the other hand, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou’s evenness index would be lower when pH and ammoniacal nitrogen have lower or higher values. Finally yet importantly, close attention should be paid to periphytic protozoa and its environment to ensure sustainable development of the Niyang River ecosystem.

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Acknowledgement

Thanks are given to YAN Hongwei, YIXI Quyun, LIU Jinfeng, DANZENG Pingcuo for their fi eld sampling. Thanks also go to the Editor Roger Z. YU and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and constructive suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Haiping Liu  (刘海平), Shaowen Ye  (叶少文), Chuanbo Guo  (郭传波) & Zhongjie Li  (李钟杰)

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Haiping Liu  (刘海平)

  3. Agricultural and Animal Husbandry College of Tibet University, Linzhi, 860000, China

    Haiping Liu  (刘海平), Huijuan Zhang  (张惠娟) & Liqing Fan  (范丽卿)

  4. Xilinhot No.6 Middle School, Xilinhot, 026000, China

    Xuefeng Yang  (杨学峰)

  5. Fujian Marine Products Technical Promotion Station, Fuzhou, 350003, China

    Liangsong Zhang  (张良松)

  6. UMR 5174 EDB, CNRS-University Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, Toulouse, France

    Lek Sovan

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  1. Haiping Liu  (刘海平)
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  9. Zhongjie Li  (李钟杰)
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Correspondence to Zhongjie Li  (李钟杰).

Additional information

Supported by Regional Fund Key Projects from Technology Gallery in Tibet, Agro-Technical Popularization from Finance Department in Tibet, the National Special Research Fund for Non-Profit Sector (Agriculture) (No. 201403012), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31560144), and the State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology (No. 2011FBZ28)

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Liu, H., Ye, S., Yang, X. et al. Spatio-temporal variability of periphytic protozoa related to environment in the Niyang River, Tibet, China. Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 35, 489–500 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-017-5274-7

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