Phytoplankton In Subarctic Lakes Of Finnish Lapland - Implications For Ecological Lake Classification

Phytoplankton community structure was studied in 33 subarctic lakes in northern Finland. The main objectives of the study were to find out which environmental factors regulate the species composition of phytoplankton in subarctic lakes, and how the lakes can be classified, based on their phytoplankton communities. Chlorophyll-a concentrations and net-planktonic phytoplankton biomass were low in all the lakes studied. Most of the lakes were dominated by chrysophytes (Chrysophyceae) or dinoflagellates (Dinophyceae). Based on cluster analysis of the phytoplankton, five groups of lake were identified. Variance partitioning indicated that most of the variation was explained by water chemistry, especially conductivity.