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A comparison of factors influencing the summer phytoplankton biomass in China’s three largest freshwater lakes: Poyang, Dongting, and Taihu

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Abstract

In this study, a large dataset for the three largest freshwater lakes (Poyang, Dongting, and Taihu) of the Yangtze River floodplain in China was analyzed to quantitatively compare the ecological structure and function of the Yangtze-connected (Poyang and Dongting) and Yangtze-isolated (Taihu) lakes on a broad scale. Discriminant analyses were performed to determine and correlate the composite gradient of physical–chemical variables that separated the six study regions, East Poyang Lake (LPY), Open LPY, North LPY, Dongting, Meiliang Bay, and Taihu center, with variables including suspended solids (SS), Secchi depth (SD), water temperature (WT), chemical oxygen demand (COD), flow velocity, and total nitrogen-to-total phosphorous (TN:TP) molar ratio. A regression analysis showed that the interactions between the SS and TP concentrations affected the phytoplankton biomass in the lentic (Meiliang Bay and East LPY) and partly lotic (Open LPY and Dongting) zones. The trophic level index (TLI)–phytoplankton, SS–phytoplankton, and TP–phytoplankton relationships revealed that hydrological (water velocity) and physical (underwater light penetration) conditions had the greatest effect on the algal biomass in the eutrophic Yangtze-connected lakes, whereas phytoplankton growth was mainly related to nutrients in the eutrophic Yangtze-isolated lake.

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Acknowledgements

The limnological study of Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake is part of a long-term study supported by the Poyang Lake Laboratory for Wetland Ecosystem Research (PLWER). We are grateful to all staff members who collected and processed samples for the monitoring program. We also express our sincere thanks to the Taihu Laboratory for Lake Ecosystem Research (TLLER), Chinese Academy of Sciences, for kindly supplying us with the monitoring data. This study was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program (Grant 2012CB417006), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41671096), and the Science and Technology Project of Jiangxi Provincial Water Resources Department (KT201406).

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  1. Poyang Lake Laboratory for Wetland Ecosystem Research, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Xia Liu, Kuimei Qian, Yuwei Chen & Junfeng Gao

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  1. Xia Liu
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  2. Kuimei Qian
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Correspondence to Yuwei Chen.

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Liu, X., Qian, K., Chen, Y. et al. A comparison of factors influencing the summer phytoplankton biomass in China’s three largest freshwater lakes: Poyang, Dongting, and Taihu. Hydrobiologia 792, 283–302 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-3063-5

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