Microbial eukaryotic community in response to Microcystis spp. bloom, as assessed by an enclosure experiment in Lake Taihu, China

Mesocosm experiments were carried out to examine the potential impacts of Microcystis blooms on microbial eukaryotic community composition (MECC). Four treatment additions of differing Microcystis spp. biomass were performed in enclosures, as indicated by chlorophyll a concentrations from 15 to 3217 μg L⁻¹ in the water column. Dialysis bags were used in enclosures to measure MECC dynamics without influence from predation and irradiance. Samples were taken on days 0, 1 and 4 for MECC analysis, based on changes in the chemical parameters during simultaneous monitoring. The MECC were determined by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), followed by cloning and sequencing of 18S rRNA genes of selected samples. T-RFLP and clone library analysis revealed that MECC in enclosures and dialysis bags shifted strongly during Microcystis spp. decomposition. Members belonging to fungi became the dominant organisms in enclosures with a high biomass of Microcystis spp. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that temporal changes in MECC were mostly related to changes in the pH and concentrations of dissolved oxygen and dissolved organic carbon, which were induced by the addition of Microcystis spp. The experiment suggests that accumulation of Microcystis biomass can strongly impact MECC, and there might be a saprophytic association between fungi and the decomposition of Microcystis biomass.