Spatiotemporal multivariate analysis of phytoplankton fluctuation in two coastal lagoons of Chiapas

Abstract

The spatio-temporal variation of the distribution and composition of the phytoplankton community was studied through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and a Cluster Analysis (CA). Based on the seasonal behavior of the most important hydrological factors and on the CA, it was established that the Carretas-Pereyra lagoon system varies throughout the year presenting eurihaline and polyhaline habitats during the dry season and mesohaline and polyhaline ones during the wet season. It was also established that in Chantuto-Panzacola the polihaline and eurihaline habitats of the dry season become polyhaline during the wet season while the mesohaline habitat remains unchanged throughout the whole year. The structure of the phytoplankton community is dependent by the key environmental characteristics of the seasonal habitats established in both systems, situation that generates a succession of the species. The PCA analysis showed that during the dry season there is a dominance of marine species (diatoms and dinoflagellates) distributed along the eurihaline habitat, but during the rainy season the community is made up by both, freshwater species (diatoms of the genera Navicula and cyanophytes) distributed along the mesohaline habitat and brackish species which are found throughout the polihaline habitat. Finally, a phytoplankton succession was established for both systems (Carretas-Pereyra and Chantuto-Panzacola): Dominance of Diatoms (dry season)-Dinoflagellates (dry-wet season)- Cyanophytes (wet season).