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Phytoplankton community metrics based on absolute and relative abundance and biomass: implications for multivariate analyses

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Abstract

Phytoplankton and water samples were collected at 12 locations along the temperate lowland Rideau River, Ontario, Canada. The stations were visited twice a month from May to September 1998, 1999, and 2000. Phytoplankton communities were quantified based on cell abundance, entity abundance (colonies, filaments or free-living cells) and biomass (converted from biovolume estimates based on cell shape and biometry), and were expressed as absolute and relative values. The resulting phytoplankton dataset was composed of six different metrics. The general objective was to assess which metric best explained the spatial and temporal variability in the phytoplankton communities of the Rideau River in response to fluctuating environmental variables. Relationships between phytoplankton metrics and water quality variables were assessed using canonical correspondence analyses. The absolute cell abundance metric showed the best relationship with water quality, followed by the cell entity metric. The biomass metric showed the poorest relationship with water quality variables, indicating that accounting for cell size does not provide additional information. The data expressed as absolute values were consistently better predictors of water quality compared to relative values.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by grants from the EJLB Foundation and by financial support from the Canadian Museum of Nature. We thank Parks Canada Rideau Canal office for granting us access to the lock system of the Rideau River, the Surface Water Quality Laboratory at the Regional Municipality of Ottawa—Carleton for the water chemistry analyses and Hurst Marina in Ottawa for providing us with a motorized boat. We thank G. Bouchard, M. Hewitt, S. Jackman and L.M. Ley as well as several museum staff and public volunteers for assistance in the field or laboratory. We further thank E. Robbie (Exova Accutest) and P. Larsen (Rideau Valley Conservation Authority) for assistance on defining and acquiring additional data on the Rideau River. I. Lavoie was in-part supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada post-doctoral fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Eau-Terre-Environnement, Institut national de la recherche scientifique, 490 de la Couronne, G1K 9A9, Québec, QC, Canada

    Isabelle Lavoie

  2. Research Division, Canadian Museum of Nature, PO Box 3443, Station D, K1P 6P4, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Paul B. Hamilton & Michel Poulin

Authors
  1. Isabelle Lavoie
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  2. Paul B. Hamilton
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  3. Michel Poulin
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Correspondence to Isabelle Lavoie.

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Lavoie, I., Hamilton, P.B. & Poulin, M. Phytoplankton community metrics based on absolute and relative abundance and biomass: implications for multivariate analyses. J Appl Phycol 23, 735–743 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-010-9573-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-010-9573-z

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