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Nano- and microphytoplankton community characteristics in brown tide bloom-prone waters of the Qinhuangdao coast, Bohai Sea, China

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Abstract

Since 2009, the newly recorded species Aureococcus anophagefferens has successively induced brown tides in the Qinhuangdao coastal waters of the Bohai Sea. Here, we focus on the phytoplankton community structure in this region and try to point out the biological background characteristics of the outbreaks of successive brown tides. We analyzed species composition, cell abundance, diversity indices and size-fractionated chlorophyll a (Chl-a) concentration monthly from March 2013 to January 2014. The phytoplankton community, as observed by microscopy, underwent succession from nano-celled chained diatoms to dinoflagellates in the spring and summer, and then to micro-celled diatoms and nano-celled chained diatoms as the most prominent groups in the subsequent autumn and winter. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that changes in the abundance of diatoms were related to nutrient availability, especially of nitrogen, while water temperature was the crucial factor influencing the abundance of dinoflagellates and A. anophagefferens. Considering the contribution of nano-celled chained species to the micro-sized Chl-a, small phytoplankton (<20 μm) composed the majority of total Chl-a and were generally abundant during our study. Abundant and diverse small phytoplankton seemed to serve as a background or seedbank for the formation of blooms of A. anophagefferens and other small-celled algae.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely appreciate the sampling assistance provided by our colleagues on Cruise QYY66666. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers (Grant No. U1606404), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA11020601), and the Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean (Grant No. 201305003-3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Xin Xu, ZhiMing Yu, LiYan He, FangJin Cheng, XiHua Cao & XiuXian Song

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xin Xu, ZhiMing Yu & XiuXian Song

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

    Xin Xu, ZhiMing Yu, LiYan He, XiHua Cao & XiuXian Song

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  1. Xin Xu
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Correspondence to ZhiMing Yu.

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Xu, X., Yu, Z., He, L. et al. Nano- and microphytoplankton community characteristics in brown tide bloom-prone waters of the Qinhuangdao coast, Bohai Sea, China. Sci. China Earth Sci. 60, 1189–1200 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9036-0

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