Phytoplankton Communities Exhibit a Stronger Response to Environmental Changes than Bacterioplankton in Three Subtropical Reservoirs.
The simultaneous analysis of multiple components of ecosystems is crucial for comprehensive studies of environmental changes in aquatic ecosystems, but such studies are rare. In this study, we analyzed simultaneously the bacterioplankton and phytoplankton communities in three Chinese subtropical reservoirs and compared the response of these two components to seasonal environmental changes. Time-lag analysis indicated that the temporal community dynamics of both bacterioplankton and phytoplankton showed significant directional changes, and variance partitioning suggested that the major reason was the gradual improvement of reservoir water quality from middle eutrophic to oligo-mesotrophic levels during the course of our study. In addition, we found a higher level of temporal stability or stochasticity in the bacterioplankton community than in the phytoplankton community. Potential explanations are that traits associated with bacteria, such as high abundance, widespread dispersal, potential for rapid growth rates, and rapid evolutionary adaptation, may underlie the different stability or stochasticity of bacterioplankton and phytoplankton communities to the environmental changes. In addition, the indirect response of bacterioplankton to nitrogen and phosphorus may result in the fact that environmental deterministic selection was stronger for the phytoplankton than for the bacterioplankton communities.
Aquatic EcoHealth Group, Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Xiamen 361021, People's Republic of China.
Lemian
L
Liu
Aquatic EcoHealth Group, Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Xiamen 361021, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
Jun
J
Yang
Aquatic EcoHealth Group, Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Xiamen 361021, People's Republic of China.
Hong
H
Lv
Aquatic EcoHealth Group, Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Xiamen 361021, People's Republic of China.
Xiaoqing
X
Yu
School of Natural Science and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University , Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF, U.K.
David M
DM
Wilkinson
Aquatic EcoHealth Group, Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Xiamen 361021, People's Republic of China.
Jun
J
Yang
D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development; D002681:China; D002980:Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000254:growth & development; D014871:Water Microbiology; D060753:Water Quality
D010758:Phosphorus; D009584:Nitrogen