Interactive Effects of Nutrients and Salinity on Phytoplankton in Subtropical Plateau Lakes of Contrasting Water Depths

Eutrophication and salinization are serious global environmental problems in freshwater ecosystems, occasionally acting jointly to exert harmful effects on aquatic ecosystems. To elucidate the interactive effects of nutrients and salinity on phytoplankton assemblages, we conducted a four-season stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water (Basel) 2023-01, Vol.15 (1), p.69
Main Authors: Wang, Ying, Jiang, Xia, Li, Yan-Ling, Yang, Li-Juan, Li, Ye-Hao, Liu, Ying, Zhou, Long, Wang, Pu-Ze, Zhao, Xu, Wang, Hai-Jun, Jeppesen, Erik, Xie, Ping
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Aquatic ecosystems
Biomass
Correlation analysis
Cyanobacteria
Ecosystems
Eutrophic environments
Eutrophic waters
Eutrophication
Freshwater ecosystems
Freshwater resources
Lakes
Nitrogen
Nutrients
Phosphorus
Phytoplankton
Plankton
Precipitation
Salinity
Salinity effects
Salinization
Seasonal variations
Sediments
Synergistic effect
Trends
Water depth
Water quality
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Summary:Eutrophication and salinization are serious global environmental problems in freshwater ecosystems, occasionally acting jointly to exert harmful effects on aquatic ecosystems. To elucidate the interactive effects of nutrients and salinity on phytoplankton assemblages, we conducted a four-season study during 2020–2021 of eight lakes from Yunnan Plateau (Southwest China) with a wide range of conductivities (Cond, reflecting degree of salinization), eutrophic states, and water depths and used General Additive Modeling (GAM) of the data. We found that: (1) species number (SN), density (DPhyt), and biomass (BPhyt) of phytoplankton showed stronger seasonal dynamics in shallow lakes than in deep lakes, all being, as expected, higher in the warm season; (2) annual and summer data revealed highly significant positive relationships between SN, DPhyt, and BPhyt with total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP), which became weaker at high TP occurring when the N:P ratio was low, indicating N limitation; (3) SN, DPhyt, and BPhyt showed a unimodal relationship with salinity, peaking at 400–1000 μS/cm (Cond); (4) the two dominant taxa (cyanobacteria and chlorophyta) showed different patterns, with chlorophyta generally dominating at low TN and cyanobacteria at high TN and Cond, suggesting the synergistic effect of nitrogen and Cond on cyanobacterial dominance.
ISSN:2073-4441
2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w15010069