The underlying causes and effects of phytoplankton seasonal turnover on resource use efficiency in freshwater lakes

Abstract The extent of intra‐annual turnover in phytoplankton communities is directly associated with the overall diversity. However, our understanding of the underlying causes and effects of intra‐annual turnover remains limited. In this study, we performed a two‐season investigation of the phytoplankton composition in the lakes of the Yangtze River catchment in China in spring and summer 2012, which covered a regional spatial scale. We analyzed the Sørensen pairwise dissimilarity (β sor ) between the two seasons, their driving factors, and effects on resource use efficiency in phytoplankton. The results showed that the changes in phytoplankton composition from spring to summer were not synchronous among these lakes. The spatial environmental characteristics, temporal changes in environmental variables and the initial phytoplankton composition together explained the variation in β sor for phytoplankton, and their explanatory powers and primary driving variables depended on the phytoplankton taxonomic groups. Among the driving variables, increased nitrogen level and seasonal temperature difference will promote spring–summer community turnover and then improve the phosphorus use efficiency of phytoplankton community. The species diversity of the initial community might increase its stability and slow the spring–summer shift in phytoplankton, especially in cyanobacteria and Chlorophyta. Our study highlights the understanding of the patterns and underlying causes of temporal beta diversity in freshwater phytoplankton communities.