Seasonal succession of phytoplankton functional groups in Lake Fuxian and its driving factors

Abstract

The concept of phytoplankton functional groups was proposed based on data from numerous European lakes and has been widely used in lakes, reservoirs, rivers worldwide. However, the application of this concept to subtropical plateau lakes has rarely been reported. In this study, 16 sampling sites were selected across the entirety of Lake Fuxian, Yunnan, China. Eighteen phytoplankton functional groups (F, G, J, X2, X1,T, P, MP, D, C, H1, LO, S1, M, Y, E, W1 and W2) were classified according to the investigation of surface water and gradient depth samples. Nine of these groups, namely LO, H1, C, MP, P, T, X1, J and F, were identified as dominant species (>5% total biomass). Furthermore, LO, H1 and T were considered predominant (accounting for the maximum percentage of biomass in each month). The sampling showed that the seasonal succession of predominant assemblages in surface water was T (October) to H1 (January) to H1 (April) to Lo (July) and T+Lo (October) to T (January) to H1 (April) to Lo (July) in the gradient depth water. Redundancy analysis (RDA) combined with the indicator function of the phytoplankton groups suggested that WT and TN/TP were important factors in driving the succession of predominant assemblages all year around.