Preliminary data on phytoplankton diurnal development in the Danube Delta

Abstract

The present paper includes the results of a preliminary ecological study of how phytoplankton diurnal development is related to water-column variables. The recorded data set was analyzed by a multivariate procedure using PRIMER6 statistical program with the following steps: transformation of the phytoplankton datachoosing square root option, creating a triangular resemblance matrix based on Bray Curtis similarity, diagnosis of the environmental variables based on Pearson correlation coefficients using Draftsman plot option before normalizing the data, creating a triangular resemblance matrix based on Euclidean distance and linking the phytoplankton assemblage to environmental variables to find the ‘best’ match which reflects the degree to which the chosen abiotic variables explains the phytoplankton diurnal pattern.

Keywords

• phytoplankton
• diurnal development
• environmental variables
• Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve