Seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton and its relationship with environmental factors in Lake Hulun

To understand the phytoplankton community characteristics and its relationships with environmental factors, we investigated the species, abundance and biomass of phytoplankton and environmental factors at eight sampling sites in Lake Hulun during March and from May to October of 2019. The results showed that; A total of 120 phytoplankton species were identified, belonging to 7 plyla and 72 genera. In terms of the seasonal composition of the phytoplankton community, Chlorophyta was the dominant groups in spring, followed by Bacillariophyta and Cyanophyta. The number of Chlorophyta was the largest in summer and autumn, followed by Cyanophyta. Bacillariophyta was the dominant group in winter, followed by Chlorophyta. The dominant species of phytoplankton in Lake Hulun were Cyclotella meneghiniana of Bacillariophyta, Anabaena circinalis and Merismopedia minima of Cyanophyta. The number of the dominant species was the most in spring and the least in autumn and winter. The phytoplankton abundance in spring (123.52×104 cells/L) and winter (16.41×104 cells/L) was lower than that in summer (280.80×104 cells/L) and autumn (380.63×104 cells/L). The abundance of Chlorophyta was the highest in spring and winter, and the abundance of Cyanophyta was the highest in summer and autumn. In terms of phytoplankton biomass, summer (0.38 mg/L) had the largest, followed by autumn (0.26 mg/L) and spring (0.24 mg/L), and winter (0.13 mg/L) had the smallest. Shannon-Wiener diversity index, evenness index J and comprehensive trophic state index all indicated that Lake Hulun was in mesotrophic condition. Redundancy analysis of phytoplankton abundance and water environmental factors showed that water temperature, chlorophyll-a, pH and nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients were the main environmental factors that affected the distribution of the phytoplankton community in Lake Hulun. © 2022 by Journal of Lake Sciences.