Impacts of algal blooms removal by chitosan-modified soils on zooplanktoncommunity in Taihu Lake, China

It is important to assess the e ect on zooplankton when perform the environmental protection or restoration technology, especiallyremoving algal blooms, because algae were the major primary producer in algal lakes. The influence on zooplankton community afterhalf a year of algal blooms removed by chitosan-modified soils in Taihu Lake was assessed and the rationality of carrying out theprocess semiannually was evaluated in the present study. Morphological composition and genetic diversity of zooplankton communitywere investigated by microscope checkup and polymerase chain reaction-denatured gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). A totalof 44 zooplankton taxa (23 protozoa, 17 rotifers, 3 copepoda and 1 cladocera) were detected by microscope checkup, and a total of91 bands (28 bands amplified by primers F1427-GC and R1616, 63 bands amplified by primers Fung-GC and NS1) were detected byPCR-DGGE. The results of cluster analysis or detrended correspondence analysis indicated that there was no considerable di erencein morphological composition of zooplankton and DGGE profiles between experimental and control sites, and DGGE profiles couldrepresent the biologic diversity. The study showed that zooplankton community could recover original condition after half year of algalblooms removed by chitosan-modified soils and it was acceptable to apply this process semiannually. In addition, the results revealedthat PCR-DGGE could be applied to investigate the impacts of the environmental protection or restoration engineering on zooplanktoncommunity diversity.