scholarly journals Improved estimates of phytoplankton community composition based on in situ spectral fluorescence: use of ordination and field-derived norm spectra for the bbe FluoroProbe

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 1472-1482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel W. Harrison ◽  
E. Todd Howell ◽  
Susan B. Watson ◽  
Ralph E.H. Smith

The use of spectral fluorometers for assessing phytoplankton concentrations and taxonomic composition in aquatic environments is increasingly common. However, the accuracy of such assessments suffers because the necessary norm spectra (spectral fingerprints) are derived using selected taxa and laboratory conditions that may not adequately represent the taxa and environmental conditions in the study area. Ordination analysis of raw fluorescence data has been proposed as a better means of interpreting spectral fluorescence data. We applied nonmetric multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis to raw in situ fluorescence data from Sturgeon Bay, a small, mesotrophic embayment of Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) to obtain system-specific norm spectra for the bbe FluoroProbe. The revised spectra gave improved estimates of phytoplankton taxonomy (root mean square error of 10% versus 14%) and of dissolved organic carbon and chlorophyll a concentrations. While promising, this method should be further explored in other systems with different and (or) weaker gradients in phytoplankton biomass and taxonomic composition.

1981 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 524-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce D. LaZerte ◽  
Susan Watson

We tested the hypothesis that total phytoplankton biomass can predict phytoplankton community structure independent of its taxonomic composition. From a 2-yr study on Lake Memphremagog, Quebec, which exhibits a marked axial trophic gradient, 133 samples were rarefied to uniform count sizes and a range of diversity numbers, based on proportional biomass, was calculated for each. Biomass is a good predictor of evenness (0.7 < R < 0.9), but not species richness (0.1 < R < 0.3), and this prediction is independent of changes in taxonomic composition. Species richness is more directly related to season and changes in taxonomic composition.Key words: diversity, evenness, species richness, phytoplankton


1987 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 2155-2163 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. M. Gray

Differences between nearshore and offshore phytoplankton biomass and composition were evident in Lake Ontario in 1982. Phytoplankton biomass was characterized by multiple peaks which ranged over three orders of magnitude. Perhaps as a consequence of the three times higher current velocities at the northshore station, phytoplankton biomass ranged from 0.09 to 9.00 g∙m−3 compared with 0.10 to 2.40 g∙m−3 for the midlake station. Bacillariophyceae was the dominant group at the northshore station until September when Cyanophyta contributed most to the biomass (83%). Although Bacillariophyceae was the principal component of the spring phytoplankton community at the midlake station, phytoflagellates (49%) and Chlorophyceae (25%) were responsible for summer biomass, with the Chlorophyceae expanding to 80% in the fall. The seasonal pattern of epilimnetic chlorophyll a correlated with temperature. While chlorophyll a concentrations were similar to values from 1970 and 1972, algal biomass had declined and a number of eutrophic species (Melosira binderana, Stephanodiscus tenuis, S. hantzschii var. pusilla, and S. alpinus) previously found were absent in 1982.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 3941-3959 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Marinov ◽  
S. C. Doney ◽  
I. D. Lima

Abstract. The response of ocean phytoplankton community structure to climate change depends, among other factors, upon species competition for nutrients and light, as well as the increase in surface ocean temperature. We propose an analytical framework linking changes in nutrients, temperature and light with changes in phytoplankton growth rates, and we assess our theoretical considerations against model projections (1980–2100) from a global Earth System model. Our proposed "critical nutrient hypothesis" stipulates the existence of a critical nutrient threshold below (above) which a nutrient change will affect small phytoplankton biomass more (less) than diatom biomass, i.e. the phytoplankton with lower half-saturation coefficient K are influenced more strongly in low nutrient environments. This nutrient threshold broadly corresponds to 45° S and 45° N, poleward of which high vertical mixing and inefficient biology maintain higher surface nutrient concentrations and equatorward of which reduced vertical mixing and more efficient biology maintain lower surface nutrients. In the 45° S–45° N low nutrient region, decreases in limiting nutrients – associated with increased stratification under climate change – are predicted analytically to decrease more strongly the specific growth of small phytoplankton than the growth of diatoms. In high latitudes, the impact of nutrient decrease on phytoplankton biomass is more significant for diatoms than small phytoplankton, and contributes to diatom declines in the northern marginal sea ice and subpolar biomes. In the context of our model, climate driven increases in surface temperature and changes in light are predicted to have a stronger impact on small phytoplankton than on diatom biomass in all ocean domains. Our analytical predictions explain reasonably well the shifts in community structure under a modeled climate-warming scenario. Climate driven changes in nutrients, temperature and light have regionally varying and sometimes counterbalancing impacts on phytoplankton biomass and structure, with nutrients and temperature dominant in the 45° S–45° N band and light-temperature effects dominant in the marginal sea-ice and subpolar regions. As predicted, decreases in nutrients inside the 45° S–45° N "critical nutrient" band result in diatom biomass decreasing more than small phytoplankton biomass. Further stratification from global warming could result in geographical shifts in the "critical nutrient" threshold and additional changes in ecology.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinggeer BORJIGIN ◽  
Bizhou ZHANG ◽  
Xiaofang Yu ◽  
Julin Gao ◽  
Xin ZHANG ◽  
...  

Abstract A lignocellulolytic microbial consortium holds promise for the in situ biodegradation of crop straw and the comprehensive and effective utilization of agricultural waste. In this study, we applied metagenomics technology to comprehensively explore the metabolic functional potential and taxonomic diversity of the microbial consortia CS (cultured on corn stover) and FP (cultured on filter paper).Analyses of the metagenomics taxonomic affiliation data showed considerable differences in the taxonomic composition and functional profile of the microbial consortia CS and FP. The microbial consortia CS primarily contained members from the genera Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Achromobacter, Dysgonomonas, Flavobacterium and Sphingobacterium, as well as Cellvibrio, Azospirillum, Pseudomonas, Dysgonomonas and Cellulomonas in FP. The COG and KEGG annotation analyses revealed considerable levels of diversity. Further analysis determined that the CS consortium had an increase in the acid and ester metabolism pathways, while carbohydrate metabolism was enriched in the FP consortium. Furthermore, a comparison against the CAZy database showed that the microbial consortia CS and FP contain a rich diversity of lignocellulose degrading families, in which GH5, GH6, GH9, GH10, GH11, GH26, GH42, and GH43 were enriched in the FP consortium, and GH44, GH28, GH2, and GH29 increased in the CS consortium. The degradative mechanism of lignocellulose metabolism by the two microbial consortia is similar, but the annotation of quantity of genes indicated that they are diverse and vary greatly. The lignocellulolytic microbial consortia cultured under different carbon conditions (CS and FP) differed substantially in their composition of the microbial community at the genus level. The changes in functional diversity were accompanied with variation in the composition of microorganisms, many of which are related to the degradation of lignocellulolytic materials. The genera Pseudomonas, Dysgonomonas and Sphingobacterium in CS and the genera Cellvibrio and Pseudomonas in FP exhibited a much wider distribution of lignocellulose degradative ability.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1419-1444 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Ford ◽  
Johan van der Molen ◽  
Kieran Hyder ◽  
John Bacon ◽  
Rosa Barciela ◽  
...  

Abstract. Phytoplankton form the base of the marine food chain, and knowledge of phytoplankton community structure is fundamental when assessing marine biodiversity. Policy makers and other users require information on marine biodiversity and other aspects of the marine environment for the North Sea, a highly productive European shelf sea. This information must come from a combination of observations and models, but currently the coastal ocean is greatly under-sampled for phytoplankton data, and outputs of phytoplankton community structure from models are therefore not yet frequently validated. This study presents a novel set of in situ observations of phytoplankton community structure for the North Sea using accessory pigment analysis. The observations allow a good understanding of the patterns of surface phytoplankton biomass and community structure in the North Sea for the observed months of August 2010 and 2011. Two physical–biogeochemical ocean models, the biogeochemical components of which are different variants of the widely used European Regional Seas Ecosystem Model (ERSEM), were then validated against these and other observations. Both models were a good match for sea surface temperature observations, and a reasonable match for remotely sensed ocean colour observations. However, the two models displayed very different phytoplankton community structures, with one better matching the in situ observations than the other. Nonetheless, both models shared some similarities with the observations in terms of spatial features and inter-annual variability. An initial comparison of the formulations and parameterizations of the two models suggests that diversity between the parameter settings of model phytoplankton functional types, along with formulations which promote a greater sensitivity to changes in light and nutrients, is key to capturing the observed phytoplankton community structure. These findings will help inform future model development, which should be coupled with detailed validation studies, in order to help facilitate the wider application of marine biogeochemical modelling to user and policy needs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
pp. 299-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Dabrin ◽  
J.-P. Ghestem ◽  
E. Uher ◽  
J.-L. Gonzalez ◽  
I.J. Allan ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
IVONNE LUNA ORTEGA ◽  
VICENCIO DE LA CRUZ FRANCISCO

Las macroalgas son abundantes en el arrecife Oro Verde, Veracruz pero, hasta ahora, se desconocía su riqueza taxonómica, y se presume que presentan asentamientos en los corales escleractinios hermatípicos. Por ello el presente trabajo investigó qué especies de corales presentaron colonizaciones algales; además, se determinó la composición taxonómica y la similitud de los ensambles de macroalgas entre las especies de corales escleractinios. Se establecieron diez puntos de muestreo de manera sistemática en el arrecife; en cada lugar de estudio se colocó un transecto de banda de 50 x 2 m para localizar y recolectar macroalgas en superficies muertas de corales escleractinios. La frecuencia de aparición de las algas se estimó con base en el total de corales estudiados, así como para cada especie coral. Para explicar similitudes y diferencias significativas de la composición de ensamblajes macroalgales entre especies de corales se aplicaron análisis de similitud y ordenación. Los corales escleractinios con ensambles de algas fueron Siderastrea siderea, Montastraea cavernosa, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Colpophylia natans, Stephanocoenia intersepta, Porites astreoides, Orbicella annularis, Orbicella faveolata. De un total de 100 colonias coralinas revisadas se determinaron 32 especies de macroalgas, las cuales están representadas en tres divisiones, 10 órdenes y 15 familias. Las macroalgas corticadas, foliosas corticadas y filamentosas fueron las más representadas en especies. Las algas de mayor frecuencia sobre los corales masivos fueron Laurencia obtusa, Amphiroa rigida y Caulerpa chemnitzia. Los corales masivos con mayor número de registros de algas fueron S. siderea (9 especies), M. cavernosa (19) y P. strigosa (17). Los ensambles algales en los corales masivos presentaron baja similitud, sin embargo no se detectaron grupos significativamente disimiles. Solamente S. siderea y M. cavernosa son ligeramente parecidos en la composición ficológica. Los resultados sugieren que los corales masivos del arrecife Oro Verde son vulnerables a la colonización de algas, pero es necesario indagar qué condiciones preceden al asentamiento algal.Macroalgal assemblages on dead surfaces of scleractinian corals (Anthozoa: Scleractinia) in the Oro Verde reef, Veracruz, MexicoBenthic macroalgae are abundant in the Oro Verde reef but their taxonomic richness was hitherto unknown and it is presumed to present settlements on the massive corals. For this reason, the present work investigated which species of massive corals show algal colonization. Also, their taxonomic composition was determined, and the similarity of the algal assemblages between species of scleractinian corals was measured. Ten sampling points were systematically established in the reef, where a transect band of 50 x 2 m at each site was placed to locate and collect algae fron the dead surfaces of scleractinian corals. The frequency of occurrence of algae species was estimated based on the total number of coral species studied, as well as on each coral species. Similarity and ordination analysis were applied in order to explain similarities and significant differences of the phycological composition among the coral species. Scleractinian corals with algal assemblages were: Siderastrea siderea, Montastraea cavernosa, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Colpophylia natans, Stephanocoenia intersepta, Porites astreoides, Orbicella annularis, Orbicella faveolata. Thirty-two species of algae were identified from a total of 100 revised coral colonies which are represented in 3 divisions, 10 orders and 15 families. The corticated, foliose corticated and filamentous macroalgae were the most represented species. The most frequent algae on massive corals were Laurencia obtusa, Amphiroa rigida and Caulerpa chemnitzia. Massive corals with higher algal records were S. siderea (9 species), M. cavernosa (19 species) and P. strigosa (17 species). The algal assemblages on the massive corals presented low similarity. However, no significant dissimilar groups were detected. Only S. siderea and M. cavernosa are relatively similar in phycological composition. The results suggest that the massive corals of the Oro Verde reef are vulnerable to the colonization of algae, but it is necessary to investigate the conditions preceding algal settlement.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Gárate-Lizárraga ◽  
C. J. Band-Schmidt ◽  
F. Aguirre-Bahena ◽  
T. Grayeb del Alamo

Red tide patches were observed in Bahía de La Paz in June 17 and 18 of 2008. According to temperature and wind data this bloom occurred under upwelling-like conditions. Examination of the red tide samples showed the ciliate Myrionecta rubra and the naked dinoflagellates Gyrodinium instriatum and Katodinium glaucum as the main species responsible for this bloom. Total density (microalgae and ciliate) at the sampling stations was similar on both days, varying from 4607 × 103 cells L-1 to 4976 × 103 cells L-1 on the first day, and from 4172 × 103 cells L-1 to 5024 × 103 cells L-1 on the second day. Phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll a) observed during the first day of the bloom was 1.5 mg m-3. Dinoflagellates and diatoms were the most numerically important phytoplankton groups. The phytoplankton community showed a high species richness, particularly heterotrophic dinoflagellates and ebridians. The ecological importance of the heterotrophic component of naked dinoflagellates and the ebriids for this bay is discussed. Florecimiento multiespecífico de microalgas en la Bahía de La Paz, Golfo de California, México (Junio, 2008) Durante los días 17 y 18 de junio de 2008, se observó una marea roja en la Bahía de La Paz. De acuerdo con los datos de temperatura y de vientos, este florecimiento ocurrió bajo condiciones muy similares a las de una surgencia. El examen de las muestras de marea roja revelaron que el ciliado Myrionecta rubra y los dinoflagelados desnudos Gyrodinium instriatum y Katodinium glaucum fueron las principales especies responsables de esta proliferación. La densidad total (microalgas y ciliado) fue similar en ambos días, variando de 4607 × 103 céls L-1 a 4976 × 103 céls L-1 durante el primero y entre 4172 × 103 céls L-1 y 5024 × 103 céls L-1 el segundo día, respectivamente. La biomasa fitoplanctónica (clorofila a) medida durante el primer día del florecimiento fue de 1.5 mg m3. Los dinoflagelados y las diatomeas fueron los dos grupos del fitoplancton numéricamente más importantes. Se observó una comunidad fitoplanctónica con una alta riqueza de especies, particularmente de dinoflagelados y ebriidos heterotróficos. Se discute la importancia del componente heterotrófico de los dinoflagelados desnudos y ebriidos.


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