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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2022, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (10): 2853-2861.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.202210.033

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Inhibitory effects of Bellamya aeruginosa on common algae in freshwater blooms

QIU Yu1, WANG Jiang-nan1, MA Zeng-ling1,2,3, CHEN Yu-tao1, ZHANG Zi-yi1, WANG Min1,2,3*   

  1. 1College of Life and Environmental Science, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325035, Zhejiang, China;
    2National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Ecological Treatment Technology for Urban Water Pollution, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325035, Zhejiang, China;
    3Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Subtropical Water Environment and Marine Biological Resources Protection, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325035, Zhejiang, China
  • Received:2021-08-26 Revised:2022-05-25 Online:2022-10-15 Published:2023-04-15

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Abstract: The increasingly frequent algal blooms in freshwater have become a major environmental problem in the world. In recent years, algae removal by the biological method is receiving more attention for its eco-friendly characteristics. In this study, we examined the effects of Bellamya aeruginosa, a common macrobenthic snail in eutrophic lakes in China, on the growth and photosynthesis activities of the common algae occurred in freshwater blooms, including cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa, coupled with green algae Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliquus. The main aims were to clarify the interactive relationships between B. aeruginosa and algae, and to verify feasibility of using B. aeruginosa as an algal-removing organism. The results showed that B. aeruginosa could feed a large amount of algae cells in a short period after inoculation, and reached the maximal removal rate of toxic and non-toxic M. aeruginosa as well as S. obliquus within 12 hours, which were 73.7%, 73.2%, and 51.1%, respectively. Furthermore, its feeding on C. vulgaris was stronger than on other algae, with the removal rate reaching 99.2% by the end of the experiment. The microcystins produced by the toxic M. aeruginosa accumulated in the body of B. aeruginosa induced the histopathological changes in the liver tissue, and thereby hindered the feeding of B. aeruginosa. In the late stage of the experiment, the photosynthetic activities of the algal cells under each treatment were significantly lower than that in the control, indicating that the feeding of B. aeruginosa damaged algal cells and inhibited their proliferation. In addition, in the mixture of non-toxic M. aeruginosa and S. obliquus, the selective feeding of B. aeruginosa caused the dominance of non-toxic M. aeruginosa to be replaced by S. obliquus. Therefore, B. aeruginosa could inhibit the photosynthesis and reduce the biomass of algae through feeding, and thus would eliminate or mitigate the formation of algal blooms.

Key words: Bellamya aeruginosa, Microcystis aeruginosa, Chlorella vulgaris, Scenedesmus obliquus, photosynthesis activity