[Effects of silicate on the community structure of phytoplankton in enclosures]

Controlling the concentrations of silicate, enclosure experiments were conducted in Xinkai Lake to investigate the influence of Si concentration on the growth and succession of phytoplankton communities in a eutrophic freshwater. The results show that with the addition of silicate, the biomass of diatoms increased and the ratio of diatom species to the total significantly increased from 10.2% to 22.1% . While the species percent of Cyanobacteria and Chlorophyta decreased to 61.5%, as compared with 76.8% in control. Several diatom species, such as Synedra ulna, Nitzschia denticula, Nitzschia acicularis, Gomphonema constrictum var. capitata, Gomphonema olivaceum, which were not found in control, were observed in the silicate-enriched treatments. The Shannon indices of 2.17 +/- 0.40 and 2.12 +/- 0.21 were obtained from the medium-Si (atomic ratio N:Si:P = 16:8:1) and high-Si ( N:Si:P = 16:16:1) treatments, which were higher than that of the control enclosure (1.89 +/- 0.55, without silicate addition). At the late phase of the experiments, algal blooms mainly composed of Microcystis aeruginosa appeared in control but not in the silicate-enriched enclosures. The enrichment of silicate can promote the growth of diatoms and the other algal species and change the dominance of few Cyanobacteria and Chlorophyte species. Therefore, it can elevate the algal biodiversity of an aquatic ecosystem and weaken the cyanobacterial blooms to a certain degree.