The key environmental factors driving the succession of phytoplankton functional groups in Hongfeng Reservoir, southwest China

Reservoirs are an important water source in many densely populated areas in southwest China.Phytoplankton play an essential role in maintaining the structure and function of reservoir ecosystems.Understanding the succession in phytoplankton communities and the factors driving it are essential for eff ective water quality management in drinking water reservoirs.In this study,water samples were collected monthly at the surface layers from March 2016 to December 2019 in Hongfeng Reservoir,southwest China.The relationship between functional group succession was analyzed based on nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis(NMDS),redundancy analysis(RDA),succession rate,and other analysis methods.The results showed distinct shifts in the community structure of phytoplankton functional groups within study period.The Cyclotella sp.was dominant in 2016 and 2017,and Pseudanabaena limnetica was the dominant group in 2018 and 2019.It appears that the phytoplankton composition and biomass are closely related to the water temperature and nutrient status in this reservoir.The results clearly showed that the permanganate index(COD_(Mn))was the key factor of dramatic phytoplankton functional group succession,and the change in succession rates was closely caused by total nitrogen concentration(TN).Therefore,the succession pattern and key factors of Hongfeng Reservoir revealed in this study were important guidance for the management of drinking water reservoirs in southwest China.A reasonable limit on exogenous nutrient input should be a priority,especially in high water temperature period.

Response of phytoplankton functional group to spring drought in a large subtropical reservoir

Global warming has caused an increase in the frequency and duration of droughts worldwide.Droughts could trigger large changes in physico-chemical conditions and phytoplankton community in waterbodies,resulting in a shift in the phytoplankton community.Spring diatom blooms in reservoirs have been increasingly observed in the past decade in the Taihu Lake basin.The aim of the present study is to elucidate the impacts of droughts on aquatic environment and to determine the driving factors for the succession of the phytoplankton functional groups based on the analysis of data collected during spring from 2009 to 2020 in the Daxi Reservoir.The unimodal relationship between 1-month aggregated precipitation index and phytoplankton species richness indicated the competitive exclusion occurred in extremely drought period.The structural equation modeling indicated that drought-related low water level conditions intensified sediment resuspension,and increased the phosphorus-enriched nonalgal turbidity in the Daxi Reservoir.Concurrently,a steady shift in the Reynolds phytoplankton functional groups from L 0,TD,J,X 2,and A(phytoplankton taxa preferring low turbidity and nutrient conditions)to TB(pennate diatoms being adapt to turbid and nutrient-rich conditions)was observed.The increased TP and non-algal turbidity in addition to the lowered disturbance contribute to the prevalence of Group TB.Considering the difficulties in nutrient control,timely water replenishment is often a feasible method of controlling the dominance of harmful algae for reservoir management.Finally,alternative water sources are in high demand for ensuring ecological safety and water availability when dealing with drought.

Risk associated with toxic blooms of marine phytoplankton functional groups on Artemia franciscana

Objective:To study mortality of copepod Artemia franciscana against the occurrence of harmful marine algae and possible toxicological changes exhibited by binary and tertiary combinations of these harmful algae toxins.Methods:Tweenty four hours acute toxicity assays were performed with selected concentrations of Alexandrium minutum,Prorocentrum lima and Nitzschia N1c1 living cells.Additionally,the results were analyzed using the median-effect/combination index(CI)-isobologram equation to assess possible changes in the toxic effect induced by phytoplankton functional groups.Results:Biotoxin equivalent values obtained by immunodetection were(2.12±0.10),(8.60±1.30)and(4.32±1.67)pg/cell for saxitoxin,okadaic acid and domoic acid,respectively.The 24-h LC_(50) values estimated to saxitoxin and okadaic acid equivalents were 4.06 and 6.27μg/L,significantly below the value obtained for Nitzschia N1c1,which was established at 467.33μg/L.CI analysis applied on phytoplankton assemblages showed that both ternary mixture as the binary combinations exhibited antagonic action on toxic effects in Artemia nauplii,which were significantly lower than the toxic effect exhibited by each species studied.Conclusions:These results show that,although these harmful algae represent a serious risk to estuarine zooplankton community,the presence of phytoplankton functional groups within the same bloom can reduce the potential risk compared to the expected risk when each of the phytoplankton groups are evaluated individually.