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Using a structural equation model to assess the spatiotemporal dynamics and driving factors of phytoplankton in the plateau Hongfeng Reservoir in southwest China

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Abstract

The time and space dynamics of phytoplankton and its driving factors were studied in Hongfeng Reservoir, southwestern China, from March 2016 to December 2019 to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics and driving factors of the phytoplankton community structure. The structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyze the relationship between abundance of phytoplankton and environmental factors in order to determine the main environmental factors that affect changes in phytoplankton. A total of 110 phytoplankton taxa were obtained from six sites. They were members of seven phyla and 68 genera with 12 dominant species or genera. The SEM showed that the main environmental factors that affected the cyanobacteria and diatoms were the temperature (WT), total nitrogen (TN), nitrite nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, and transparency (SD). Those that affected the Chlorophyta were the pH, TN, ammonia nitrogen (NH4+–N), and orthophosphate phosphorus (PO43−–P). We concluded that changes in the WT, SD, and the concentration of nutrients significantly affected the abundance of phytoplankton and the dominance of Cyanobacteria and diatoms, whereas these factors had insignificant effects on green algae. The WT, SD, TN and NH4+–N were found to be important environmental factors that affect the structure, growth, and reproduction of the phytoplankton community in Hongfeng Reservoir. This study should provide a scientific reference for the reservoir phytoplankton community ecology and a database on the changes in water quality.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1612442), Special Foundation for National Science and Technology Basic Research Program of China (2019FY101900) and the Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province ([2020]6009, [2020]4Y009). We also appreciate our colleagues for assisting with field work and laboratory experiments. The data for this study are available through the corresponding author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Area and Protection of Ecological Environment of Guizhou Province, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China

    Shaopu Pan, Qiuhua Li, Chunlan Meng & Yiming Ma

  2. Guizhou International Science and Technology Cooperation Base-International Joint Research Centre for Aquatic Ecology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China

    Shaopu Pan, Qiuhua Li, Chunlan Meng, Mengshu Han, Yiming Ma & Anton Brancelj

  3. Key Laboratory for Information and Computing Science of Guizhou Province, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, China

    Mengshu Han

  4. National Institute of Biology, Vecna pot 111, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Anton Brancelj

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  1. Shaopu Pan
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Contributions

SP performed the conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing-original draft and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. QL acted to acquire funding, administer the project, and supervised the writing of the manuscript. CM was a major contributor of the data curation. MH was a major contributor of investigation, formal analysis and data curation. YM analyzed and interpreted the data and was a major contributor in preparing the figures related to data. AB regulated the research methodology and English checking of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qiuhua Li.

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Pan, S., Li, Q., Meng, C. et al. Using a structural equation model to assess the spatiotemporal dynamics and driving factors of phytoplankton in the plateau Hongfeng Reservoir in southwest China. Aquat Ecol 56, 1297–1313 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-022-09963-9

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