Phytoplankton Diversity Effects on Community Biomass and Stability along Nutrient Gradients in a Eutrophic Lake

Wang Tian, Huayong Zhang, Lei Zhao, Feifan Zhang and Hai Huang
Additional contact information
Wang Tian: Research Center for Engineering Ecology and Nonlinear Science, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Huayong Zhang: Research Center for Engineering Ecology and Nonlinear Science, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Lei Zhao: Research Center for Engineering Ecology and Nonlinear Science, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Feifan Zhang: Research Center for Engineering Ecology and Nonlinear Science, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Hai Huang: Research Center for Engineering Ecology and Nonlinear Science, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is a central issue in ecology, but how this relationship is affected by nutrient stress is still unknown. In this study, we analyzed the phytoplankton diversity effects on community biomass and stability along nutrient gradients in an artificial eutrophic lake. Four nutrient gradients, varying from slightly eutrophic to highly eutrophic states, were designed by adjusting the amount of polluted water that flowed into the lake. Mean phytoplankton biomass, species richness, and Shannon diversity index all showed significant differences among the four nutrient gradients. Phytoplankton community biomass was correlated with diversity (both species richness and Shannon diversity index), varying from positive to negative along the nutrient gradients. The influence of phytoplankton species richness on resource use efficiency (RUE) also changed from positive to negative along the nutrient gradients. However, the influence of phytoplankton Shannon diversity on RUE was not significant. Both phytoplankton species richness and Shannon diversity had a negative influence on community turnover (measured as community dissimilarity), i.e., a positive diversity–stability relationship. Furthermore, phytoplankton spatial stability decreased along the nutrient gradients in the lake. With increasing nutrient concentrations, the variability (standard deviation) of phytoplankton community biomass increased more rapidly than the average total biomass. Results in this study will be helpful in understanding the phytoplankton diversity effects on ecosystem functioning and how these effects are influenced by nutrient conditions in aquatic ecosystems.

Keywords: phytoplankton species richness; Shannon diversity index; community biomass; resource use efficiency; community turnover; spatial stability; nutrient gradients (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/1/95/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/1/95/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:1:p:95-:d:88341

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().