Climate change threatens ecological balance of South Australia's coastal lagoon: study

　　CANBERRA, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Climate change could reshape phytoplankton communities and increase the risk of harmful algal blooms in the Coorong, a shallow coastal lagoon in the state of South Australia, a new study finds.

　　Led by Flinders University researchers and funded by the Goyder Institute for Water Research in Australia, the study examined phytoplankton across the Coorong, combining field samples from freshwater to salty habitats with 16 years of historical data, according to a university statement released on Sunday.

　　The researchers found that changes to salinity and water levels through variations in freshwater inputs to the Coorong had the most influence on phytoplankton abundance, diversity and community structure.

　　Freshwater and mildly salty habitats supported the greatest number of species, while extremely salty habitats had fewer species and were dominated by diatoms and dinoflagellates, two major groups of single-celled phytoplankton, the study published in Continental Shelf Research found.

　　The researchers also found that while the levels of harmful bloom-forming species in the Coorong are low overall, there are more than 80 phytoplankton species capable of producing toxins. ■