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Quantitative PCR analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of Aureococcus anophagefferens and Minutocellus polymorphus and the relationship between brown tides and nutrients in the coastal waters of Qinhuangdao, China

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Abstract

Brown tides caused by the excessive growth of the pelagophyte Aureococcus anophagefferens have occurred frequently in Qinhuangdao, China, since 2009. In this study, the temporal and spatial variations of A. anophagefferens and Minutocellus polymorphus were analyzed using real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. The relationship between nutrient contents and brown tide events as well as the impacts of the brown tides on the composition of phytoplankton is discussed. The results showed that A. anophagefferens reached peak densities in July. Brown tides occurred in the coastal waters of Funing and Changli, and the main affected areas shifted from south to north throughout the experiment. The A. anophagefferens brown tide event was not monospecific, as M. polymorphus and Prorocentrum minimum were also observed. A redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that decreasing concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and increasing concentrations of the available organic nitrogen compounds (urea, dissolved free amino acids (DFAA), and dissolved combined amino acids (DCAA)) from March to June may have resulted in the outbreak of the brown bloom of A. anophagefferens, coinciding with a reduction in the community diversity of phytoplankton in the coastal waters of Qinhuangdao.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. Guodong Chen for analyzing the concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, dissolved silicate, and dissolved inorganic phosphate. We are also grateful to the Hebei Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute for their assistance with the collection of samples and geochemical data during the experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Ling Qiao, Tiezhu Mi & Yu Zhen

  2. Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Ling Qiao, Tiezhu Mi & Yu Zhen

  3. Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Ling Qiao, Tiezhu Mi, Yu Zhen & Zhigang Yu

  4. School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Yanghang Chen & Yahui Gao

  5. State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Yahui Gao

  6. Key Laboratory of Marine Chemical Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Zhigang Yu

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  1. Ling Qiao
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Correspondence to Tiezhu Mi.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Marine Public Welfare Research Project (201205031) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41521064, 41375143, 61271406).

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Qiao, L., Chen, Y., Mi, T. et al. Quantitative PCR analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of Aureococcus anophagefferens and Minutocellus polymorphus and the relationship between brown tides and nutrients in the coastal waters of Qinhuangdao, China. J Appl Phycol 29, 297–308 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-016-0959-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-016-0959-4

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