Factors influencing chlorophyll a concentration in the Yangtze connected lakes.pdf

? by PSP Volume 18 – No 10. 2009 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 1894 FACTORS INFLUENCING CHLOROPHYLL A CONCENTRATION IN THE YANGTZE-CONNECTED LAKES Bao-Zhu Pan1,2, Hai-Jun Wang1, Xiao-Min Liang1, Hong-Zhu Wang1 1State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, P.R. China 2Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, P.R. China ABSTRACT To determine the environmental factors influencing phytoplankton chlorophyll a (Chl a), field investigations were conducted in three river-connected lakes (Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake and Shijiu Lake) of the Yangtze flood- plain in 2004. Results showed that the average Chl a con- centration in these lakes ranged from 2.98 to 3.65 mg m-3. The major factors influencing Chl a in lentic and lotic re- gions were total phosphorus (TP) and water velocity (U), respectively. Multiple relationships including total nitro- gen (log10TN) and water depth (log10Z) were established. Further analyses found that the absolute Chl a and slope of log10Chl a＝f (log10TP) in the river-connected lakes were obviously lower than those in the river-isolated lakes. This suggests the river-lake connectivity can significantly modify relationship between TP and chlorophyll a con- centration. KEYWORDS: chlorophyll a, water velocity, total phosphorus, river-connected lakes. INTRODUCTION Chlorophyll a (Chl a) is widely used as a measure of phytoplankton biomass. It has been associated with many factors in the former researches. Studies on lentic system, e.g. in temperate and subtropical lakes and reservoirs, con- firmed the strong dependence of Chl a concentration on total phosphorus (TP) [1-4]. The nutrient-Chl a relation- ship was generally a non-linear function with large unex- plained variations, suggesting that other factors also limit algal growth, e.g. physical ones (water depth, water t