Original paper
Multivariate analysis of lake phytoplankton and environmental factors
Varis, Olli; Sirviö, Hannu; Kettunen, Juhani
Archiv für Hydrobiologie Volume 117 Number 2 (1989), p. 163 - 175
28 references
published: Dec 20, 1989
DOI: 10.1127/archiv-hydrobiol/117/1989/163
ArtNo. ESP141011702002, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
The water quality of Lake Enäjärvi, Southern Finland, has deteriorated strongly due to eutrophication, especially by high summertime biomasses of cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae). According to 88 algal counts available from the years 1977—1981, the greatest problems were caused by Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, Microcystis and Oscillatoria. Also other phytoplankton genera, such as Melosira, Chlamydomonas and Pediastrum were observed to form blooms. Of a number of multivariate techniques used to find associations between the algal taxa and selected environmental factors, canonical correlation analysis appeared the most applicable. Canonical correlations were used in defining the roles of selected environmental variables in the algal associations. A very distinct cluster of the most dominant cyanobacteria was formed. The taxa in the cluster had a strong positive correlation with total phosphorus and water temperature, and a negative correlation with the N/P ratio and ammonium. A number of diatoms formed a cluster which correlated with nitrate. Despite the difficulty of dealing with the numerous zero-valued observations, the method used was efficient, and yielded information applicable in further studies, such as dynamic models, and in the management of the lake.
Keywords
Lake Enäjärvi • Southern Finland • cyanobacteria • bluegreen algae • phytoplankton