Seasonal variation of plankton communities influenced by environmental factors in an artificial lake

We evaluated the seasonal variation in plankton community composition in an artificial lake. We conducted microscopic analysis and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of PCR-amplified partial 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes to characterize the plankton community. The clustering of unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) was then used to investigate the similarity of these plankton communities. DGGE fingerprinting revealed that samples collected at the different sites within a season shared high similarity and were generally grouped together. In contrast, we did not observe any seasonal variation based on microscopic analysis. Redundancy analysis (RDA) of the plankton operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in relation to environmental factors revealed that transparency was negatively correlated with the first axis (R=−0.931), and temperature and total phosphorus (TP) were positively correlated with the first axis (R=0.736 and R=0.660, respectively). In conclusion, plankton communities in the artificial lake exhibited significant seasonal variation. Transparency, phosphorus and temperature appear to be the major factors driving the differences in plankton composition.