Phytoplankton Community Structure and Succession

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Systematics, Taxonomy, Nomenclature and Classification".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 1840

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Ulica Cara Hadrijana 8/A, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Interests: phytoplankton; phytoplankton ecology; algae culture; freshwater ecology; algal diversity; algology

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Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Interests: aquatic ecology; phytoplankton taxonomy and ecology; phytoplankton functional groups; floodplain ecology; invasive species; water quality assessment
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Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Ulica Cara Hadrijana 8/A, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Interests: aquatic and terrestrial ecology; oxidative stress; medicinal and edible plants; phytobenthos; grasslands
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Phytoplanktons represent a community of aquatic photosynthetic microorganisms characterised by great diversity. As one of the major biological quality elements, it is used as a monitoring tool in the assessment of the ecological status of surface waters required by relevant directives. Supported by morphological and functional phytoplankton analyses, the molecular approach in phytoplankton ecology is increasingly used to explain and predict species distribution along environmental gradients. The study of phytoplankton diversity, community structure and succession patterns is critical to understand the increasing eutrophication, invasive species problems, harmful algal blooms and the overall effects of climate change on inland waters, which can be used to assess water quality and plan restoration efforts.

This proposed Special Issue of Plants addresses the topics of phytoplankton dynamics at seasonal and long-term scales, as well as physical, biological or autogenic drivers that destroy the structure or alter the environment in favour of tolerant taxa.

Dr. Dubravka Špoljarić Maronić
Dr. Filip Stevic
Dr. Tanja Žuna Pfeiffer
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • phytoplankton diversity
  • lake steady states
  • biotic indicators
  • planktonic food webs
  • phytoplankton functional groups
  • edna metabarcoding
  • invasive species
  • cyanobacterial blooms
  • water quality assessment
  • conservation
  • plankton and climate change
  • ecosystem functioning
  • phytoplankton–periphyton interactions

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2143 KiB  
Article
Maintenance of High Phytoplankton Diversity in the Danubian Floodplain Lake over the Past Half-Century
by Melita Mihaljević, Dubravka Špoljarić Maronić, Filip Stević, Tanja Žuna Pfeiffer and Vanda Zahirović
Plants 2024, 13(17), 2393; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13172393 - 27 Aug 2024
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Abstract
Riverine floodplains are recognized as centers of biodiversity, but due to intense anthropogenic pressures, many active floodplains have disappeared during the last century. This research focuses on the long-term changes in phytoplankton diversity in the floodplain lake situated in the Kopački Rit (Croatia), [...] Read more.
Riverine floodplains are recognized as centers of biodiversity, but due to intense anthropogenic pressures, many active floodplains have disappeared during the last century. This research focuses on the long-term changes in phytoplankton diversity in the floodplain lake situated in the Kopački Rit (Croatia), one of the largest conserved floodplains in the Middle Danube. The recent dataset from 2003 to 2016 and historical data from the 1970s and 1980s indicate high phytoplankton diversity, summarising 680 taxa for nearly half a century. The variability of species richness is driven by specific in-lake variables, particularly water temperature, water depth, total nitrogen, pH, and transparency, determined by a redundancy analysis of the current data. The high phytoplankton diversity levels are sustained regardless of intense pressures on the lake environment, including exposure to strong anthropogenic pollution in the past and extreme hydrological events, both droughts and floods, which have increasingly affected this part of the Danube in the last decades. The conserved hydrological connection between various biotopes along the river–floodplain gradient seems crucial in maintaining high phytoplankton diversity. Accordingly, conserving natural flooding is mandatory to maintain high biodiversity in complex and dynamic river–floodplain systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phytoplankton Community Structure and Succession)
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17 pages, 3142 KiB  
Article
Phytoplankton in Deep Lakes of the Dinaric Karst: Functional Biodiversity and Main Ecological Features
by Nikola Hanžek, Mario Šiljeg, Tanja Šikić and Igor Stanković
Plants 2024, 13(16), 2252; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13162252 - 14 Aug 2024
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Abstract
Phytoplankton is a polyphyletic group of organisms that responds rapidly to environmental conditions and provides a reliable response to changes, making it a good ecological indicator for water quality monitoring. However, a gradient is almost essential for a reliable relationship between pressure and [...] Read more.
Phytoplankton is a polyphyletic group of organisms that responds rapidly to environmental conditions and provides a reliable response to changes, making it a good ecological indicator for water quality monitoring. However, a gradient is almost essential for a reliable relationship between pressure and impact. In a low-gradient environment, ingenuity is required to outsmart the limitations of the commonly used linear relationship. Here, we examine changes in biomass and functional biodiversity by analysing larger data sets (2013–2022) in six ecologically diverse, natural, deep Croatian karst lakes with low nutrient gradients using nonlinear correlation coefficients and multivariate analyses in 209 samples. We found that phytoplankton biomass was most strongly influenced by nutrients, salinity and alkalinity, while light availability and total nitrogen strongly influenced phytoplankton functional biodiversity. An additional analysis of the TN:TP ratio revealed that the oligotrophic Lake Vransko is nitrogen-limited, and lakes Kozjak and Prošće are phosphorus-limited. This further clarified the relationship of phytoplankton to nutrients despite the low gradient. The complex analysis in this study provides a new perspective for predicting changes in the structure and succession of phytoplankton in deep karst lakes for successful management under apparent anthropogenic pressure and climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phytoplankton Community Structure and Succession)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

1. Phytoplankton in deep karst lakes: functional biodiversity and main ecological features

 Nikola Hanžek, Mario Šiljeg & Igor Stanković*

Josip Juraj Strossmayer Water Institute, Ulica Grada Vukovara 220, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

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