Drivers of phytoplankton production and community structure in nutrient-poor estuaries receiving terrestrial organic inflow
2019 (English)In: Marine Environmental Research, ISSN 0141-1136, E-ISSN 1879-0291, Vol. 151, article id 104778Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The influence of nutrient availability and light conditions on phytoplankton size-structure, nutritional strategy and production was studied in a phosphorus-poor estuary in the northern Baltic Sea receiving humic-rich river water. The relative biomass of mixotrophic nanophytoplankton peaked in spring when heterotrophic bacterial production was high, while autotrophic microphytoplankton had their maximum in summer when primary production displayed highest values. Limiting substance (phosphorus) only showed small temporal variations, and the day light was at saturating levels all through the study period. We also investigated if the phytoplankton taxonomic richness influences the production. Structural equation modelling indicated that an increase of the taxonomic richness during the warm summer combined with slightly higher phosphorus concentration lead to increased resource use efficiency, which in turn caused higher phytoplankton biomass and primary production. Our results suggest that climate warming would lead to higher primary production in northerly shallow coastal areas, which are influenced by humic-rich river run-off from un-disturbed terrestrial systems.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2019. Vol. 151, article id 104778
Keywords [en]
Phytoplankton, Size-structure, Primary production, Autotrophy, Mixotrophy, Taxonomic richness, Resource use efficiency, Coastal waters, Phosphorus-poor estuaries
National Category
Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources Ecology Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-166459DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2019.104778ISI: 000497258600017PubMedID: 31488340Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85071595027OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-166459DiVA, id: diva2:1379468
Funder
Swedish Research Council FormasSwedish Agency for Marine and Water ManagementSwedish Environmental Protection Agency2019-12-172019-12-172023-03-23Bibliographically approved