Spatial and temporal patterns of benthic diatom flora in Lake Stechlin, Germany

Authors

BEÁTA SZABÓ
JUDIT PADISAK
GÉZA B. SELMECZY
LOTHAR KRIENITZ
PETER CASPER
CSILLA STENGER-KOVÁCS

DOI

10.3906/bot-1606-41

Abstract

Phytoplankton and planktonic centric diatoms of Lake Stechlin have been extensively studied, while attached diatoms have received much less scientific interest. In the present study, the composition of benthic diatoms and their diversity metrics were determined and compared along the shoreline of the lake in spring 2013 and autumn 2014. Overall, 118 taxa classified in 52 genera were found, of which 15 species belonged to threat categories of the Red List for Central Europe. Species richness (33 ± 4), Shannon diversity (2.47 ± 0.23), and species composition did not show any differences between different basins. Besides the spatial homogeneity, considerable temporal differences were observed. In spring 2013, species number was significantly lower, while the proportion of Mediophyceae species was higher due to the high abundance of Stephanodiscus rugosus and S. neoastraea. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) showed significant differences between samples from the two years for the total and the Bacillariophyceae species composition. TP concentration of water samples suggested a mesotrophic status and most of the diatom taxa were considered eutraphentic and meso-eutraphentic.

Keywords

Bacillariophyceae, Mediophyceae, algal biodiversity, indicator species, algal red list, Baltic Lake District

First Page

211

Last Page

222

Recommended Citation

SZABÓ, BEÁTA; PADISAK, JUDIT; SELMECZY, GÉZA B.; KRIENITZ, LOTHAR; CASPER, PETER; and STENGER-KOVÁCS, CSILLA (2017) "Spatial and temporal patterns of benthic diatom flora in Lake Stechlin, Germany," Turkish Journal of Botany: Vol. 41: No. 2, Article 10. https://doi.org/10.3906/bot-1606-41
Available at: https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/botany/vol41/iss2/10