Environmental drivers of heterogeneity in the trophic-functional structure of protozoan communities during an annual cycle in a coastal ecosystem

Xu, Guangjian; Yang, Eun Jin; Xu, Henglong

Environmental drivers of heterogeneity in the trophic-functional structure of protozoan communities during an annual cycle in a coastal ecosystem

2017

Xu, Guangjian | Yang, Eun Jin | Xu, Henglong

Trophic-functional groupings are an important biological trait to summarize community structure in functional space. The heterogeneity of the tropic-functional pattern of protozoan communities and its environmental drivers were studied in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea during a 1-year cycle. Samples were collected using the glass slide method at four stations within a water pollution gradient. A second-stage matrix-based analysis was used to summarize spatial variation in the annual pattern of the functional structure. A clustering analysis revealed significant variability in the trophic-functional pattern among the four stations during the 1-year cycle. The heterogeneity in the trophic-functional pattern of the communities was significantly related to changes in environmental variables, particularly ammonium-nitrogen and nitrates, alone or in combination with dissolved oxygen. These results suggest that the heterogeneity in annual patterns of protozoan trophic-functional structure may reflect water quality status in coastal ecosystems.

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