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Spatial heterogeneity of spring phytoplankton in a large tropical reservoir: could mass effect homogenize the heterogeneity by species sorting?

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Abstract

Reservoirs are river–lake hybrid ecosystems characterized by a marked longitudinal zonation and variable flushing rates depending on the use of stored waters. The structure of their phytoplankton is therefore subjected to the interplay between the environmental conditions of the different zones (species sorting) and the strength of the unidirectional flow (mass effect). The spatial distribution of spring phytoplankton was investigated in a tropical reservoir across its different zones. Phytoplankton displayed heterogeneous spatial patterns from the turbulent, nutrient-rich riverine zones to the relatively stable lacustrine zone. The analysis of this spatial heterogeneity revealed the relative importance of species sorting and mass effect in this morphologically complex reservoir. Different taxonomic groups showed different spatial patterns due to their specific physiological and morphological features, and as a result of the local environmental filtering. In the studied reservoir, the strength of the homogenizing effect of water flow did not smooth the spatial heterogeneity and played a weak role in constraining spring phytoplankton. Actually, water flow contributed to the spatial heterogeneity of phytoplankton by enhancing the local environmental differences caused by an operational drop in water level, and species sorting resulted as the primary forcing in determining spring phytoplankton spatial distribution.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support from the Science and Technology Project for Application of Guangdong Province, China (Nos: 2015B020235007 and 2016A030313098) and Guangdong scientific and technological innovation project for water resource (2016-08). We thank three anonymous reviewers for their careful reading and constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrobiology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Yang Yang, Haiyu Niu, Lijuan Xiao, Qiuqi Lin & Bo-Ping Han

  2. Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, Section of Botany and Plant Ecology, University of Palermo, Via Archirafi 28, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Luigi Naselli-Flores

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  1. Yang Yang
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Correspondence to Bo-Ping Han.

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Yang, Y., Niu, H., Xiao, L. et al. Spatial heterogeneity of spring phytoplankton in a large tropical reservoir: could mass effect homogenize the heterogeneity by species sorting?. Hydrobiologia 819, 109–122 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3651-7

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