Correlation Between Algal Species Diversity Index and Phytoplankton Community Biomass in a Mesotrophic Lake (West Siberia, Russia)

The study deals with phytoplankton biodiversity in mesotrophic Sartlan Lake, a large natural saline water body in the south of West Siberia. Two different approaches are used: floristic and ecological cenotic. The former is good for determining and analyzing the phytoplankton species composition. The latter gives a quantitative estimation of the phytoplankton biodiversity from the equation of information theory: H-b = -Sigma(n)(i=1) B-i/Blog(2) B-i/B, where H-b is the biodiversity (bits); B-i is the population biomass of the species i; B is the entire phytoplankton community biomass (mg/l). A reliable stable negative correlation exists between the phytoplankton biomass and species diversity. Analytical equations and a diagram are given to illustrate the correlation between these values.