The relationship between inorganic nutrients and diversity of dinoflagellate cysts: An evaluation from the perspective of species abundance distribution

Abstract

The relationships between the inorganic nutrients and diversity of dinoflagellate cysts (the N-Dc relationships) are one of the most central issues in coastal ecology. It is not only an important pathway to explore the ecological processes of plankton, but also a key element for assessing eutrophication in marine ecosystems. Although the N-Dc relationships have been studied for many years, they have remained controversial, which may be attributed to (1) using samples collected from a single source (2) considering an insufficient range of nutrient concentrations (3) rarely taking into account species abundance distributions (SAD) that could better represent diversity. In this study, the N-Dc relationships are evaluated according to a compiled dataset, which cover the wide range of nutrient concentrations. Species diversity of cysts are estimated by four common diversity metrics and a new SAD parameter. Results show that all diversity metrics are negative with nutrients, which supports that low diversity of cysts could be considered as a signal of eutrophication. Additionally, this study finds a new pattern that SAD of cysts (Nr/N1, Nr and N1 is the abundance of the r-th and the first species in descending order) with decreasing nutrients appears to gradually approach 1: 1/2: 1/3…. In the future, if this pattern can be verified by more investigations, understanding the negative N-Dc relationships is more likely to provide new direction for assessing and managing eutrophication in coastal ecosystem, and even for exploring the general mechanisms determining diversity.