The Influence of Key Environmental Variables on Phytoplankton Community Structure in the Estuary of Tidal Rivers Around Luoyuan Bay,China

A total of 348 species belonging to 8 phyla and 125 genera were observed in seasonally sampled phytoplankton of tidal rivers from 13 sampling sites around Luoyuan Bay, and all field samplings were carried out in productive period(March/June/August/December) at ebb tide. Bacillariophyta species were the most abundant species, followed by Chlorophyta, Cyanophytes, Euglenophyta, Cryptophyta, Dinophyta, Xanthophyta and Chrysophytas. Seasonal distribution index(SDI) value ranged from 0.63 to 0.86, which meant that species found at those sites in 4 seasons tended to be largely different. Phytoplankton individuals ranged from 5.939×10~4 ind Lin winter to 75.31×10~4 ind Lin autumn. Phytoplankton biomass ranged from 0.620 mg Lin summer to 2.373 mg Lin autumn. The grey correlation analysis(GCA) showed that the nutrient variables played an important role in the influence on phytoplankton community in every season. The canonical correspondence analysis(CCA) revealed impact of environmental variables on the different species, most of Bacillariophyta species were negative correlation with nutrients(TP and NH-N) in the four seasons, Chlorophyta species and Cyanophyta species did not show obvious correlation with environment variables in every season. The combination of GRA analysis and CCA analysis provided a method to quantitatively reveal the correlation between phytoplankton community and environmental variables in water body of tidal rivers at this region.