Characteristics Of Phospholipid Fatty Acids Of Phytoplankton In Huizhou West Lake

Some phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) of phytoplankton are specific and therefore can be used to study the phytoplankton community structure. The stable isotope of PLFA can be analyzed which can be converted to the phytoplankton and thus used for foodweb and element biogeochemical cycling. In this study, we identified the dominant species of phytoplankton in Huizhou West Lake first and then incubated them indoor to analyze the PLFA composition. The relationship between PLFA of common species (cyanobacteria, green algae and diatoms, etc.) and their community structure were established by the way of combining phytoplankton PLFA analysis with phytoplankton community analysis. The results showed that 16:3ω3 was only detected from the green algae and 22:6ω3 only from the diatom, the five green algae selected were in high abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), however, cyanobacteria was in lack of 16:2ω6 and 16:3ω3 in study on culture species PLFA. In Huizhou West Lake field samples,16:3ω3 relative abundance and abundance of green algae showed a positive correlation. In conclusion, PLFA was feasible as a biomarker for study on phytoplankton community structure, and had a potential to explore the use of isotope technology with PLFA for food web study in aquatic ecosystems.