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Red Waters of Myrionecta rubra are Biogeochemical Hotspots for the Columbia River Estuary with Impacts on Primary/Secondary Productions and Nutrient Cycles

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Abstract

The localized impact of blooms of the mixotrophic ciliate Myrionecta rubra in the Columbia River estuary during 2007–2010 was evaluated with biogeochemical, light microscopy, physiological, and molecular data. M. rubra affected surrounding estuarine nutrient cycles, as indicated by high and low concentrations of organic nutrients and inorganic nitrogen, respectively, associated with red waters. M. rubra blooms also altered the energy transfer pattern in patches of the estuarine water that contain the ciliate by creating areas characterized by high primary production and elevated levels of fresh autochthonous particulate organic matter, therefore shifting the trophic status in emergent red water areas of the estuary from net heterotrophy towards autotrophy. The pelagic estuarine bacterial community structure was unaffected by M. rubra abundance, but red waters of the ciliate do offer a possible link between autotrophic and heterotrophic processes since they were associated with elevated dissolved organic matter and showed a tendency for enhanced microbial secondary production. Taken together, these findings suggest that M. rubra red waters are biogeochemical hotspots of the Columbia River estuary.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the captain, crew, and scientific party of the R/Vs Barnes, New Horizon and Wecoma; Pete Kahn and Sheedra Futrell (OHSU) for their help with sampling in 2010; Mikaela Selby (OHSU) for constructing some of the clone libraries; Margaret Sparrow and Tiffany Gregg (OSU) for particulate organic carbon and nitrogen and photosynthetic pigment analyses; Mari Garcia (OHSU) for the 2010 chlorophyll a measurements; Caroline Fortunato (UMCES) for the microbial secondary production analyses; Joe Jennings (OSU) for analyzing the inorganic nutrient samples of 2007–2008; our colleagues at the UMCES analytical laboratory for measuring the concentrations of dissolved organic carbon, and total dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus; Grant Law (OHSU) for plotting Fig. 4.

This study was carried out within the context of the Science and Technology Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction (CMOP) supported by the National Science Foundation (grant number OCE-0424602). A portion of the research was performed with support from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is operated by Battelle for the United States Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction and Division of Environmental & Biomolecular Systems, Oregon Health & Science University, 20000 NW Walker Rd, Beaverton, OR, 97006, USA

    Lydie Herfort, Tawnya D. Peterson, Joseph A. Needoba, Victoria Campbell & Peter Zuber

  2. College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Burt 130, Corvallis, OR, 97331-5503, USA

    Fredrick G. Prahl

  3. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Boulevard, Richland, WA, 99352, USA

    Lee Ann McCue

  4. Horn Point Laboratory University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, 2020 Horns Point Rd, Cambridge, MA, 21613, USA

    Byron C. Crump

  5. NOAA Fisheries, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Point Adams Biological Field Station, PO Box 155, Hammond, OR, 97121, USA

    G. Curtis Roegner

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  1. Lydie Herfort
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Correspondence to Lydie Herfort.

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Table S1

Physical, biological, and chemical data used for calculating the averages presented on Figs 2, 3, and 4. POC particulate organic carbon, PN particulate nitrogen, Chla chlorophyll a, DOC dissolved organic carbon, NH4 ammonium, NO3 nitrate, DIP dissolved inorganic phosphorus, DON dissolved organic nitrogen, DOP dissolved organic phosphorus, MSP microbial secondary production, N.D. not determined (DOC 43 kb)

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Herfort, L., Peterson, T.D., Prahl, F.G. et al. Red Waters of Myrionecta rubra are Biogeochemical Hotspots for the Columbia River Estuary with Impacts on Primary/Secondary Productions and Nutrient Cycles. Estuaries and Coasts 35, 878–891 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-012-9485-z

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