Ecological stoichiometry influences phytoplankton alpha and beta diversity rather than the community stability in subtropical bay

Qiangsheng Xu; Meiqin Huang; Shu Yang; Xiaoli Li; Huaxian Zhao; Jinli Tang; Gonglingxia Jiang; Zhuoting Li; Yuqing Huang; Ke Dong; Liangliang Huang; Nan Li

doi:10.1002/ece3.9301

Ecological stoichiometry influences phytoplankton alpha and beta diversity rather than the community stability in subtropical bay

Ecol Evol. 2022 Sep 9;12(9):e9301. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9301. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf (Nanning Normal University), Guangxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Intelligent Simulation Nanning Normal University Nanning Guangxi China.
² Guangxi Station of Radiation Environment Supervision, Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangxi Nanning China.
³ School of Agriculture, Ludong University Yantai China.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences Kyonggi University Suwon-si South Korea.
⁵ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology Guilin China.

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that changes in environmental factors can significantly impact and shift the structure of phytoplankton communities in marine ecosystems. However, little is known about the association between the ecological stoichiometry of seawater nutrients and phytoplankton community diversity and stability in subtropical bays. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between the phytoplankton community assemblage and seasonal variation in the Beibu Gulf, South China Sea. In this study, we found that the abundance of Bacillariophyceae in spring was relatively greater than in other seasons, whereas the abundance of Coscinodiscophyceae was relatively low in spring and winter but greatly increased in summer and autumn. Values of the alpha diversity indices gradually increased from spring to winter, revealing that seasonal variations shifted the phytoplankton community structure. The regression lines between the average variation degree and the Shannon index and Bray-Curtis dissimilarity values showed significantly positive correlations, indicating that high diversity was beneficial to maintaining community stability. In addition, the ecological stoichiometry of nutrients exhibited significantly positive associations with Shannon index and Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, demonstrating that ecological stoichiometry can significantly influence the alpha and beta diversity of phytoplankton communities. The C:N:P ratio was not statistically significantly correlated with average variation degree, suggesting that ecological stoichiometry rarely impacted the community stability. Temperature, nitrate, dissolved inorganic phosphorous, and total dissolved phosphorus were the main drivers of the phytoplankton community assemblage. The results of this study provide new perspectives about what influences phytoplankton community structure and the association between ecological stoichiometry, community diversity, and stability in response to environmental changes.

Keywords: Beibu gulf; community stability; distribution; ecological stoichiometry; phytoplankton diversity; rbcL gene.