Effects of Different Saline-Alkaline Conditions on the Characteristics of Phytoplankton Communities in the Lakes of Songnen Plain, China

Abstract

Many lakes located in the Songnen Plain of China exhibit a high saline-alkaline level. 25 lakes in the Songnen Plain were selected as research objects in this study. Water samples in these lakes were collected from June to August in 2008. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Total Alkalinity (TA) were measured to assess the saline-alkaline level, and partial canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was conducted as well. The results show that the majority of these lakes in the study area could be categorized into HCO3−-Na+-I type. According to the TDS assessment, of the total 25 lakes, there are 14 for freshwater, 7 for brackish water and 4 for saltwater; and the respective range of TA was from 0.98 to 40.52. The relationship between TA and TDS indicated significant linear relationship (R2 = 0.9292) in the HCO3−-Na+-I type lakes in the Songnen Plain. There was a general trend that cell density, genera richness and taxonomic diversity decreased with the increase of saline-alkaline gradient, whereas a contrary trend was observed for the proportion of dominant species. When the TDS values were above 3×103mg/L and the TA values were above 15mg/L, there was a significant reduction in cell density, genera richness and biodiversity, and their corresponding values were respectively below 10×106 (ind/L), 15 and approximately 2.5. Through the partial canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), 10.7% of the genera variation was explained by pure saline-alkaline variables. Cyclotella meneghiniana, Melosira ambigua and Melosira granulate were found to become the dominant species in most of these lakes, which indicated that there may be rather wide saline-alkaline niches for common dominant species. About one-quarters of the genera which have certain tolerance to salinity and alkalinity preferred to live in the regions with relatively higher saline-alkaline levels in this study.

Preliminary Assessment of Ecological Status of the Siversky Donets River Basin (Ukraine) Based on Phytoplankton Parameters and Its Verification by Other Biological Data

“…HCO 3 − is associated with alkalinity and buffering capacity of water needed for survival of wide spectrum of biological species, but its high amount along with COD Mn created preferable conditions for Cyanobacteria, probably serving as sources of excess inorganic and organic C. Moreover, increased alkalinity favors Cyanobacterial growth, repressing C uptake by other phytoplankton species [77]. A strong relationship was shown between quantitative parameters of Bacillariophyceae development and the values of total water mineralization and chemical oxygen demand [78][79][80]. Some diatoms are resistant to high water mineralization, e.g., Cyclotella meneghiniana, able to actively vegetate at 1100-3200 mg•L −1 [80], consistent with the results of this study.…”

Quantifying Turbidity Variation for Lakes in Daqing of Northeast China Using Landsat Images From 1984 to 2018

“…These densely distributed lakes in or around Daqing city are collectively called the Daqing lakes in this study. At the same time, Songnen Plain, where the lakes are located, is an important grain production base in China [41][42][43]. Therefore, the Daqing lakes play an important role in providing drinking water, industrial and agricultural water and domestic water for local residents.…”

Spatial and temporal variation of phytoplankton functional groups in extremely alkaline Dali Nur Lake, North China

“…Global alkaline lakes tends to occur in semi-arid or arid areas with very high productivity compared to other aquatic systems (Melack and Kilham 1974;Oduor and Schagerl 2007a) and a confined diversity of microbial life due to high salinity and pH values (Nielsen 1999;Oren 2011). In spite of their ecological value, studies on the composition and distribution of plankton species is very scant compared to freshwater systems (Sun et al 2009;Xu et al 2010;Niu et al 2011;Yu et al 2012;Sui et al 2016). Several environmental factors such as water temperature, conductivity, total phosphorus, calcium ions, magnesium ions and hydrological pattern have been considered as essential factors responsible for shaping biological composition in saline-alkaline lake (Wood and Talling 1988;Oduor and Schagerl 2007b;Schagerl and Oduor 2008).…”

“…In regions where seasonality is very distinct, variations in environmental factors plays a major role in plankton composition and structure via the influence of light and nutrients concentrations (Yu et al 2012). Notably, also is that composition and community structure of organisms in alkaline lakes seems to be controlled by the level of alkalinity and stability of other environmental factors (Sui et al 2016). According to Garc ıa et al (1997) in water bodies where topography limits water outflow from the lake, then seasonality is an important factor that influence the environmental variables.…”

“…Phytoplankton composition and structure have been researched by different scientists in saline-alkaline lakes in China (Luo et al 2000;XU J-y et al 2001;Sui et al 2016). These authors have reported: (i) decrease in taxonomic diversity, genera richness and cell density with increase of saline-alkaline gradient and (ii) dominance of Melosira granulate, Melosira ambigua, and Cyclotella meneghiniana species in most of the lakes.…”