Abstract: Fish culture in lakes is a very common and important aquaculture in China but few study reported comprehensive ecological impacts of different fish culture types on lakes. We assessed phytoplankton communities from March, 2016 to January, 2017 seasonally in 9 lakes, which included four groups: reservoir group (group SR), nonaquaculture group (group SN), low stocking aquaculture group (group SL) and high stocking aquaculture group (group SH), along the middle Yangtze River. A total of 110 phytoplankton genera belonging to 8 phyla were collected, among which were mainly Chlorophyta, Bacillariophyta and Cyanophyta. The seasonal succession of major dominant species in the reservoir group was remarkable, while there were stable dominant genera in the nonaquaculture (Merismopedia), low stocking aquaculture (Pseudanabaena) and high stocking aquaculture (Merismopedia) groups. The seasonal patterns of phytoplankton abundance in the four lake groups were different and depended on the dominance of cyanobacteria. According to the phytoplankton diversity index, water pollution (nutrient) status of the four lake groups showed seasonal differences, and the evaluation results of the ShannonWiener index were consistent with those of the Pielou index. Hierarchical cluster analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) showed that lakes in the reservoir group were in the same category in all seasons, and lakes in the nonaquaculture and high stocking groups were in the same category in all seasons except summer. The current study indicated that fish culture had some impacts on phytoplankton communities, but banning from aquaculture in a short time did not significantly change them in lakes.