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Spatiotemporal variability of phytoplankton functional groups in a shallow eutrophic lake from cold, arid regions

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Abstract

In the shallow eutrophic lakes in cold, arid regions, the phytoplankton functional groups and the factors that drive their spatiotemporal variabilities remain unclear. Samples were collected from Lake Ulansuhai in April, August, and October 2017 (wet season) and January 2018 (dry season). Based on the functional group classification method, 23 phytoplankton functional groups with 5 major ones were identified. During the wet season, high amounts of nutrients, elevated temperatures, and heavy rainfall produced spatiotemporal variabilities in phytoplankton communities, whereas during the dry season, the frozen period was the critical factor that determined the spatiotemporal variabilities in the phytoplankton communities. Through redundancy analyses, total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentrations were observed to directly affect the phytoplankton growth; algal growth affected the chemical oxygen demand, and pH and environmental factors interacted with the phytoplankton growth. These results highlight the complex feedbacks of shallow eutrophic lake ecosystems in arid regions. Group TC (represented by Lyngbya) was correlated with Huangtai algae. In August, a Huangtai algal bloom resulted in a relatively stable water column, which was conducive to group TC growth. Therefore, the presence of certain phytoplankton functional groups can indicate the current lake conditions by identifying the coverage of Huangtai algae, which provides a scientific basis for an early warning of a potential algal bloom.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Prof. Xixi Lu of the National University of Singapore for reading the manuscript and providing comments. We also thank all the colleagues and students at the Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of River and Lake Ecology for their assistance with sampling.

Funding

This study was funded by the Science and Technology Major Project on Lakes of Inner Mongolia (Grant No. ZDZX2018054), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51869014, 51469018, 41701281), the Key Scientific and Technological Project of Inner Mongolia (Grant No. 2019GG019), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0500508).

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  1. Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of River and Lake Ecology & Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Ecology and Resource Use of the Mongolian Plateau, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China

    Ye Jin, Ruihong Yu, Zhuangzhuang Zhang, Qi Zhang, Meixia Li, Zhengxu Cao, Linhui Wu & Yanling Hao

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  1. Ye Jin
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Jin, Y., Yu, R., Zhang, Z. et al. Spatiotemporal variability of phytoplankton functional groups in a shallow eutrophic lake from cold, arid regions. Environ Monit Assess 192, 371 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08349-4

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