title: An approach to analyzing environmental drivers to spatial variations in annual distribution of periphytic protozoa in coastal ecosystems.
abstract: The environmental drivers to the spatial variation in annual distribution were studied based on an annual dataset of periphytic protozoa using multivariate approaches. Samples were monthly collected at four stations within a pollution gradient in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China during a 1-year period. The second-stage (2STAGE) analyses showed that the internal patterns of the annual distribution were changed along the pollution gradient in terms of abundance. The dominant species represented different succession dynamics among four sampling stations during a 1-year cycle. Best matching analysis demonstrated that the spatial variations in annual distribution of the protozoa were significantly correlated with ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N), alone or in combination with salinity and dissolved oxygen (DO). Based on the results, we suggest that the nutrients, salinity and DO may be the main drivers to shape the spatial variations in annual distribution of periphytic protozoa.
authors: Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
authors: Guangjian
authors: G
authors: Xu
authors: Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China. Electronic address: henglongxu@126.com.
authors: Henglong
authors: H
authors: Xu
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000032:analysis; D044822:Biodiversity; D002681:China; D016798:Ciliophora / Q000254:growth & development*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D054712:Salinity; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D060753:Water Quality
chemical_list: D000641:Ammonia; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Bioassessment; Environmental driver; Marine ecosystems; Periphytic protozoa; Water quality