Ecological Study of Spring-Early Summer Phytoplankton Blooms in A Semi-Enclosed Estuary

A sampling station in the Eastern Harbour of Alexandria was operated for 51 days between 2 March and 12 June, 1991. the harbour had different wide physical and chemical variations. Six distinct phytoplankton blooms occurred during this period. It is concluded that the physicochemical conditions affected the phytoplankton community structure and species composition. A dense diatom bloom could be maintained in a very weak and/or stabilized water column. A diatom bloom does not necessarily accompany an enhanced nutrient period. the depletion of nutrients and establishment of thermal stratification probably created favourable conditions for dinoflagellate and flagellate species to achieve blooms. the species composition could be shifted over the short term and a dense phytoplankton bloom could possibly dissipate in a few days.     

黄河三角洲河口区浮游植物组成及多样性分析

通过对2010年5月、8月、11月黄河三角洲主要河口浮游植物的调查,该水域共有浮游植物42种,以硅藻门所占比例较大;细胞密度为5.3×107～2.41×109ind/m3;生物多样性H为0.56～1.4,植物物种丰度指数D为0.06～0.36,均匀度指数J值均在0.5以上。结果表明:与莱州湾、渤海湾海域相比,黄河三角洲主要河口区浮游植物具有一定的淡水特征,种类组成及数量差异较大。黄河三角洲主要河流入水口处浮游植物的Shannon-Weaver多样性指数、Pielou均匀度指数与莱州湾、渤海湾海域相比差别不大,均较低。渤海水域主要河流入水口处营养状态均为中营养型以下,且春季好于夏秋两季,表现出一定的季节趋势。     

A multi-scale approach to modelling spatial and dynamic ecological patterns for reservoir's water quality management

With growing levels of urbanization and agriculture throughout the world, it is increasingly important that both research and management efforts take into account the effects of this widespread landscape alteration and its consequences for natural systems. Freshwater ecosystems, namely reservoirs, are particularly sensitive to land use changes. In this context, modelling can be very useful, for decision support, as an investigative tool to forecast the outcome of various scenarios, to guide current management in order to meet future targets and to develop integrated frameworks for management accordingly to the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The present paper examined the applicability of a holistic Stochastic-Dynamic Methodology (StDM), coupled with a Cellular Automata (CA) model, in capturing how expected changes at land use level will alter the ecological status of lentic ecosystems, namely at physicochemical and biological levels. The methodology was applied to Portuguese reservoirs located in the Douro's basin and illustrated with a series of stochastic-dynamic and spatial outputs taking into account expected scenarios regarding land use changes. Overall, the simulation results are encouraging since they seem to demonstrate the tool reliability in capturing the stochastic environmental dynamics of the selected metrics facing spatial explicit scenarios. The ultimate goal was to couple monitoring assessment and the described modelling techniques to ease management and decision making regarding the practical implementation of the WFD, both at the scale of the reservoir body and at the scale of the respective river watershed dynamics.     

Distribution of phytoplankton community and its influence factors in an urban river network,East China

To reveal the distribution characteristics of phytoplankton and the main influence factors under different conditions in the urban rivers, the investigations were conducted during autumn and winter 2014 in Changzhou City, East China. 178 taxa of phytoplankton belonging to 28 functional assemblages were identified. In autumn, the phytoplankton community compositions have high similarity for enhanced hydrological connectivity. The chlorophytes and diatoms (prevailing functional groups C, F, J, P), together with euglenoids (W1), showed high proportions of biomass in the main rivers and connected rivers. It was related to the well mixed eutrophic conditions. The phytoplankton community exhibited spatiotemporal heterogeneity in winter. Affected by the low water level and temperature, the free-living phytoflagellates (X2) replaced groups F and J in the main rivers. Phytoplankton productivity was the highest in the Tongji River. Chlorophytes Dictyosphaerium ehrenbergianum and Chlamydobotrys stellata had an overwhelming superiority during the winter bloom. They were significantly correlated with ammonium, total phosphorus and biochemical oxygen demand. Affected by tail water supply, the diatoms (MP) and euglenoids (W1) dominated in a beheaded river. The multivariate analyses based on the phytoplankton functional groups helped to evaluate the relationships and variations between the urban rivers. The redundancy analysis (RDA) results showed that nitrate nitrogen, water temperature, total nitrogen and total suspended solids were the main influence factors on the phytoplankton community. Except MP, the prevailing groups all showed significant negative correlations with nitrate nitrogen. Availability and utilization of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and hydrodynamic conditions affected the phytoplankton distribution.

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Origins and scales of hypoxia on the Louisiana shelf: Importance of seasonal plankton dynamics and river nutrients and discharge

Management plans for the Mississippi River Basin call for reductions in nutrient concentrations up to 40% or more to reduce hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), while at the same time the government is considering new farm subsidies to promote development of biofuels from corn. Thus there are possibilities of both increasing and decreasing river nutrients depending on national priorities. River flow rates which also influence the extent of hypoxia on the shelf may be altered by global climate change. We have therefore developed a series of simulations to forecast ecosystem response to alterations in nutrient loading and river flow. We simulate ecosystem response and hypoxia events using a linked model consisting of multiple phytoplankton groups competing for nitrogen, phosphorus and light, zooplankton grazing that is influenced by prey edibility and stoichiometry, sub-pycnocline water-column metabolism that is influenced by sinking fecal pellets and algal cells, and multi-element sediment diagenesis. This model formulation depicts four areas of increasing salinity moving westward away from the Mississippi River point of discharge, where the surface mixed layer, four bottom layers and underlying sediments are represented in each area. The model supports the contention that a 40% decrease in river nutrient will substantially reduce the duration and areal extent of hypoxia on the shelf. But it also suggests that in low and middle salinity areas the hypoxia response is saturated with respect to nutrients, and that in high salinity regions small increases in nutrient and river flow will have disproportionally large effects on GOM hypoxia. The model simulations also suggest that river discharge is a stronger factor influencing hypoxia than river nutrients in the Mississippi River plume. Finally, the model simulations suggest that primary production in the low salinity regions is light limited while primary production in the higher salinity zones is phosphate limited during the May to October period when hypoxia is prevalent in the Mississippi River plume.     

A three-component model of phytoplankton size class for the Atlantic Ocean

A three-component model was developed which calculates the fractional contributions of three phytoplankton size classes (micro-, nano- and picoplankton) to the overall chlorophyll-a concentration in the Atlantic Ocean. The model is an extension of the Sathyendranath et al. (2001) approach, based on the assumption that small cells dominate at low chlorophyll-a concentrations and large cells at high chlorophyll-a concentrations. Diagnostic pigments were used to infer cell size using an established technique adapted to account for small picoeukaroytes in ultra-oligotrophic environments. Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) pigment data taken between 1997 and 2004 were split into two datasets; 1935 measurements were used to parameterise the model, and a further 241 surface measurements, spatially and temporally matched to chlorophyll-a derived from SeaWiFS satellite data, were set aside to validate the model. Comparison with an independent global pigment dataset (256 measurements) also supports the broader-scale application of the model. The effect of optical depth on the model parameters was also investigated and explicitly incorporated into the model. It is envisaged that future applications would include validating multi-plankton biogeochemical models and improving primary-production estimates by accounting for community composition.     

Assesment of the response of a shallow macrotidal estuary to changes in hydrological and wastewater inputs through numerical modelling

The aim of this study was to investigate the response to short-term changes in river freshwater discharges and in nutrients loadings (mainly from the treatment of urban wastewater), of the shallow macrotidal Urdaibai estuary (north of Spain), by using numerical tools. A two-dimensional hydrodynamic model and a water quality model were applied to the estuary, in order to better use it as a prediction tool in the study of the effects of variations in hydrodynamic conditions and in waste water inputs. The model was calibrated and verified using data measured under different hydrological conditions (spring and summer). A model calibration was carried out with field data measured during the summer, while the model validation was conducted for spring conditions. The calibration process allowed the model parameter definition, while the model validation permitted the verification of the calibrated parameters under different environmental conditions. The model results were in reasonable agreement with field measurements, in both the calibration and the validation phases. The model showed a significant decrease in phytoplankton concentration with river input increase. A study on the effects of nutrient input reduction from the Gernika Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) was conducted. It showed a decrease in phytoplankton concentration with decreasing levels of nutrient discharge. This reduction was more pronounced in conjunction with the highest river discharge. In that case, a 50% decrease for the elimination of the WWTP discharge was observed.     

Cell size dependent toxicity thresholds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to natural and cultured phytoplankton populations

The toxicity of pyrene and phenanthrene to phytoplankton was studied by analyzing the effect on the growth, abundance and cell viability of cultured species and natural communities of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. A decrease in cell abundance, and growth rate was observed as concentration of PAHs increased, with catastrophic cell mortality induced at the highest PAH concentration tested. A strong positive linear relationship was observed between the LC50 (the PAH concentration at which cell population will decline by a half), and the species cell volume, for both phenanthrene and pyrene. Natural communities were however significantly more sensitive to PAHs than cultured phytoplankton, as indicated by the lower slope (e.g. 0.23 and 0.65, respectively, for pyrene) of the relationship LC50 vs. cell volume. The results highlight the importance of cell size in determining the phytoplankton sensitivity to PAHs identifying the communities from the oligotrophic ocean to be more vulnerable.     

Estrogenic activity in extracts and exudates of cyanobacteria and green algae

Here is presented some of the first information on interactions of compounds produced by cyanobacteria and green algae with estrogen receptor signaling. Estrogenic potency of aqueous extracts and exudates (culture spent media with extracellular products) of seven species of cyanobacteria (10 different laboratory strains) and two algal species were assessed by use of in vitro trans-activation assays. Compounds produced by cyanobacteria and algae, and in particular those excreted from the cells, were estrogenic. Most exudates were estrogenic with potencies expressed at 50% of the maximum response under control of the estrogen receptor ranging from 0.2 to 7.2 ng 17β-estradiol (E₂) equivalents (EEQ)/L. The greatest estrogenic potency was observed for exudates of Microcystis aerigunosa, a common species that forms water blooms. Aqueous extracts of both green algae, but only one species of cyanobacteria (Aphanizomenon gracile) elicited significant estrogenicity with EEQ ranging from 15 to 280 ng 17β-estradiol (E₂)/g dry weight. Scenedesmus quadricauda exudates and extracts of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae were antagonistic to the ER when coexposed to E₂. The EEQ potency was not correlated with concentrations of cyanotoxins, such as microcystin and cylindrospermopsin, which suggests that the EEQ was comprised of other compounds. The study demonstrates some differences between the estrogenic potency of aqueous extracts prepared from the same species, but of different origin, while the effects of exudates were comparable within species. The observed estrogenic potencies are important namely in relation to the possible mass expansion of cyanobacteria and release of the active compounds into surrounding water.     

江阴地区主要河道浮游藻类群落特征

2010年9月和2011年1月、4月、7月共4次对江阴6条主要河道的浮游藻类群落特征开展调查分析。共发现浮游藻类7门141属种,种类丰富度和现存量夏秋季高于秋冬季。优势种属呈季节性演替,即冬季梅尼小环藻(Cyclotellameneghiniana)、颗粒直链硅藻(Aulacoseira granulata)-春季梅尼小环藻、啮蚀隐藻(Cryptomonas erosa)、裸藻属(Euglenaspp.)、衣藻属(Chlamydomonas spp.)、卵囊藻属(Oocystis spp.)-夏季巨颤藻(Oscillatoria princeps)、阿氏浮丝藻(Planktothrixagardhii)-秋季巨颤藻、阿氏浮丝藻、梅尼小环藻。南北向河道(锡澄运河、白屈港河和张家港河)的浮游藻类季节波动性大于东西向河道(应天河、东横河和西横河)。通过指示生物法,调查河道处于α,β-中污染状态。