“…Significantly positive linear relationships between free-living bacterial abundance and protein-like C1 fluorescence were also found in the algal-derived filtrate group ( R 2 = 0.78, p < 0.001) and algal residual exudative organic matter group ( R 2 = 0.59, p < 0.01) throughout the entire experimental period. This indicated that labile algal-derived filtrate or algal residual exudative organic matter derived from algal degradation became an important factor in controlling bacterial abundance, which would play an important role in microbial food webs and carbon cycling during the decay of algal blooms through the bacterial enzymolysis mechanism [ 69 ]. At the final stable phase of the two groups (algal-derived filtrate group, day 20–80; algal residual exudative organic matter group, day 31–80), the humic-like C2 component accumulated with the decrease in free-living bacterial abundance, and free-living bacterial abundance showed a significant negative linear relationship with humic-like C2 fluorescence (algal-derived filtrate group, R 2 = 0.63, p < 0.05; algal residual exudative organic matter group, R 2 = 0.96, p < 0.01).…”