Relationships between testate amoeba communities and water quality in Lake Donghu, a large alkaline lake in Wuhan, China

Abstract

The middle Yangtze Reach is one of the most developed regions of China. As a result, most lakes in this area have suffered from eutrophication and serious environmental pollution during recent decades. The aquatic biodiversity in the lakes of the area is thus currently under significant threat from continuous human activities. Testate amoebae (TA) are benthic (rarely planktonic) microorganisms characterized by an agglutinated or autogenous shell. Owing to their high abundance, preservation potential in lacustrine sediments, and distinct response to environmental stress, they are increasingly used as indicators for monitoring water quality and reconstructing palaeoenvironmental changes. However this approach has not yet been developed in China. This study presents an initial assessment of benthic TA assemblages in eight lakes of Lake Donghu in the region of Wuhan, China. Testate amoeba community structure was most strongly correlated to water pH. In more alkaline conditions, communities were dominated by Centropyxis aculeata, Difflugia oblonga, Pontigulasia compressa, Pon. elisa and Lesquereusia modesta. These results are consistent with previous studies and show that TA could be useful for reconstructing past water pH fluctuations in China. To achieve this, the next step will be to expand the database and build transfer function models.

Keywords

testate amoebae (TA) / water quality / water pH / Lake Donghu / China

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Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973, No. 2011CB808800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40930210, 40921062, 41072261 and 41130207), the Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research of Central Colleges, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan_CUGL100502, G1323521132), the 111 project (B08030) and the Opening Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment (SKLLQG1118). Dr. Yangmin Qin thanks all the team of the Laboratory of Soil Biology at University of Neuchâtel for inviting him visiting the laboratory and providing facilities and help.

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