Application of CCA for study on modern lake diatoms and environment in the Tibetan Plateau

The relations between lake surface sediment diatoms and water environmental variables were revealed effectively by use of a new multivariate canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) based on 45 lakes in the Tibetan Plateau. Water depth, conductivity, Cl, Mg2+, K+ and pH, identified from 12 contemporary water environmental variables, can significantly and independently explain the diatom distributions (p2+ and K+, indicating the direction of salinity changes, correlate with both of the first two axes. The definition of diatom-environment model may provide a basis for further quantitative inference on diatom-environment transfer function.