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Characterization of phytoplankton community in a river ecosystem using pigment composition: a feasibility study

  • Cyanobacterial blooms and water ecological restoration
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Abstract

CHEMTAX is a mathematical software for phytoplankton composition evaluation using pigment composition. Although this method has been previously applied in the ocean environment, we firstly utilized the combination of matrix factorization program CHEMTAX and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to characterize the phytoplankton community from a river system (western part of Weihe River Basin). The obtained results were compared with those from microscopic examination. Based on the comparison, it is suggested that after increasing the ratio of characteristic pigment to chlorophyll a of diatoms and euglena, the diatoms calculated by the CHEMTAX method accounted for 80% of the total biomass, and the results were consistent with microscopic examination, but diatoms obtained from F2, C1 and W5 sample sites were significantly overestimated 33%~60%. The comparison also showed that the model always underestimated cyanobacteria (sample sites F2, C1 were underestimated 25%) and euglena were overestimated (sample sites W3, Q1 were respectively overestimated 33%, 23%), but for chlorophytes, both overestimation and underestimation could occur. When the relevant results from previous applications in the ocean phytoplankton community evaluation were taken into consideration, it can be concluded that CHEMTAX-HPLC method was not accurate enough to characterize the phytoplankton communities in the freshwater (river/lake) ecosystem.

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Funding

Dr. Ming Li is funded as Tang Scholar by Cyrus Tang Foundation and Northwest A&F University. The study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41661134036). The authors appreciate Songqi Yang from Hexi University for his help on the manuscript revision, including language edit and figure redraw. The authors also would also like to thank anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and constructive suggestions for manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Taihu Lake Laboratory Ecosystem Research Station, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Yaqi Tian & Jianming Deng

  2. College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, 712100, People’s Republic of China

    Yaqi Tian & Ming Li

  3. South East Water, 101 Wells Street, Frankston, VIC, 3199, Australia

    Li Gao

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  1. Yaqi Tian
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  2. Li Gao
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  3. Jianming Deng
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Correspondence to Jianming Deng.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Tian, Y., Gao, L., Deng, J. et al. Characterization of phytoplankton community in a river ecosystem using pigment composition: a feasibility study. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 42210–42220 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07213-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07213-4

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