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Determination of the Settling Rate of Clay/Cyanobacterial Floccules

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Published on: June 11, 2018

Hydrological disturbances enhance stochastic assembly processes and decrease network stability of algae communities

Zhenyu Huang¹, Baozhu Pan¹, Xiaohui Zhao¹

¹State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulic in Northwest Arid Region of China, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710048, PR China.

The Science of the Total Environment

|August 11, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Flood disturbance significantly alters algae communities in Tibetan floodplains, increasing planktonic diversity but promoting homogenization. Stochastic processes like ecological drift become dominant during floods, impacting community assembly and stability.

Keywords:

Assembly mechanism Benthic algae Co-occurrence pattern Flooding Hydrological disturbance Planktonic algae

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Environmental Science
Microbiology

Background:

Floodplains are critical biodiversity hotspots globally.
Hydrological disturbances, especially floods, significantly impact floodplain ecosystem functions by altering algae communities.
Understanding flood impacts on algae community assembly and co-occurrence patterns is crucial for conservation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effects of flood disturbance on planktonic and benthic algae community assembly processes and co-occurrence patterns in a Tibetan floodplain.
To determine the shifts in ecological processes driving algae community structure during non-flood and flood periods.

Main Methods:

Collected 144 water and sediment samples from a Tibetan floodplain during non-flood and flood periods.
Characterized planktonic and benthic algae communities using 23S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing.
Analyzed community diversity, composition, assembly processes (dispersal limitation, ecological drift), and network interactions.

Main Results:

Flood disturbance increased diversity and compositional variation in planktonic algae compared to benthic communities.
Flooding promoted community homogenization across horizontal (rivers vs. oxbow lakes) and vertical (water vs. sediment) gradients.
Stochastic processes, particularly ecological drift, became dominant during floods, while dispersal limitation decreased.
Algae community interactions were reduced, leading to lower network complexity and stability, with benthic subnetworks showing greater resilience.

Conclusions:

Flood disturbance profoundly reshapes algae community assembly in floodplains, favoring stochastic processes.
Planktonic algae are more sensitive to flood disturbances than benthic algae.
Findings provide insights into highland floodplain ecosystem management and the ecological responses of algae to hydrological changes.