Abstract：Laboratory experiments were conducted to identify the growth of algae response to different spatial size(pilot incubator with volume of 200 L and beaker with volume of 200 mL). algae samples were isolated from a rural reservoir in South china and then inoculated into 4 sets of containers(fertilized beaker, un-fertilized beaker, fertilized tank and un-fertilized tank, respectively)under identical light intensity, temperature and stirring intensity conditions. Chlorophyll-a(chl-a) concentration, algae density were measured and growth curve of algae were protracted during culture period. According to our results: Chl-a concentration was more than 20 000 μg/L and the abundance of cyanobacteria was up to 96% in fertilized beaker, and the chl-a concentration in un-fertilized beaker also reached a high level of 12 000 μg/L. In contrast, there were no evidently gaps among the tanks(either fertilized or un-fertilized) of which maximum Chl-a concentration had only 49 μg/L and 63 μg/L respectively, and the population structure was similar to raw water. It is apparent that the spatial factors was crucial to control algae biomass, and the F value of nutrition was only 1.81 in comparison to 22.32 of that of the spatial factor according to variance analysis. Difference in species diversity, ecological stability, environmental resilience responses to spatial size can mainly explain for the great discrepancy of algae growth level in beaker and tanks. The results of the present study clearly show that spatial scale has an immeasurable influence on the formation of algae blooms.
2019, Vol. 32 
