Mechanisms controlling the carbon stable isotope composition of phytoplankton in karst reservoirs

Submitted: 31 May 2012
Accepted: 15 November 2012
Published: 6 February 2013
Abstract Views: 3199
PDF: 745
HTML: 1668
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

In order to systematically understand the mechanisms controlling the carbon stable isotope composition of phytoplankton (δ13CPHY)in freshwater ecosystems, seasonal changes in δ13CPHY and related environmental factors were determined in karst reservoirs from the Wujiang river basin, China. Substantial and systematic differences within seasons and reservoirs were observed for δ13CPHY, which ranged from -39.2‰ to -15.1‰. An increase in water temperature triggered fast growth of phytoplankton which assimilated more dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), resulting in the increase of δ13CPHY, δ13CDIC and pH. When the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) was less than 10 mmol L–1, phytoplankton shifted to using HCO3– as a carbon source. This resulted in the sharp increase of δ13CPHY. The carbon stable isotope composition of phytoplankton tended to decrease with the increase of Bacillariophyta, which dominated in January and April, but tended to increase with the increase of Chlorophyta and Dinophyta, which dominated in July. Multiple regression equations suggested that the influence of biological factors such as taxonomic difference on δ13CPHY could be equal or more important than that of physical and chemical factors. Thus, the effect of taxonomic differences on δ13CPHY must be considered when explaining the δ13C of organic matter in lacustrine ecosystem.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Wang, Baoli, Cong-Qiang Liu, Xi Peng, and Fushun Wang. 2013. “Mechanisms Controlling the Carbon Stable Isotope Composition of Phytoplankton in Karst Reservoirs”. Journal of Limnology 72 (1):e11. https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2013.e11.

List of Cited By :

Crossref logo