Functional groups of algae in small shallow fishponds

Kostadin Dochin, Velika Kuneva and Ludmila Nikolova

Abstract: This study aims to analyze the seasonal changes of dominant algae in shallow fishponds by implementing for the first time in the country the concept of functional groups proposed by Reynolds et al., (2002). One hundred seventy-two taxa classified into 22 functional groups have been identified. With the largest number of species are the codons: J, X1, MP, F, Lo and W1. Results from the applied cluster analysis show that algae are grouped into four clusters. The first one consists of two homogeneous subclusters, one of which includes dominant green algae and the other – the most common cyanoprokaryotes. The second cluster consists of species with different taxonomic and functional attributes that occur throughout the whole period without strict seasonal preferences. Some taxa with large intergroup distances are differentiated into a third cluster. The fourth cluster is also heterogeneous and it consists of different functional groups. The obtained data show that this ecological approach completely tailored to the characteristics and specifics of artificial fishponds would be appropriate in the study of ecology and seasonal changes of dominant algae species.

Keywords: cluster analysis; dominant algae; functional groups; shallow fishponds

Date published: 2020-06-30