Phytoplankton functional groups response to environmental parameters in Muling River basin of northeast China

Abstract

The present study was carried out in the biggest tributary of Ussuri River of boundary between China and Russia. The Muling River basin has undergone a long-term dredging works, and waterbody became seriously turbid. The succession of phytoplankton functional groups succession and environmental factors in the river were sampled in 2015. We totally identified 83 species, belonging to 17 functional groups which 5 were predominant, including group F, M, MP, P and Y. The seasonal succession of phytoplankton functional groups was M/P-F/MP/P-MP/P. Results of Spearman correlation analysis and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed that phytoplankton functional groups were mainly influenced by nutrient concentrations and light availability including total nitrogen (TN), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+–N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−–N), N:P ratio (N:P), water depth (D) and transparency (SD) in the basin.