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Impact of atmospheric dry deposition of nutrients on phytoplankton pigment composition and primary production in the coastal Bay of Bengal

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Abstract

Atmospheric deposition of pollutants decreases pH and increases the nutrient concentration in the surface water. To examine its impact on coastal phytoplankton composition and primary production, monthly atmospheric aerosol samples were mixed with coastal waters in the microcosm experiments. These experiments suggested that the biomass of Bacillariophyceae, Dinophyceae and Chlorophyceae were increased and primary production of the coastal waters increased by 3 to 19% due to the addition of aeolian nutrients. The increase in primary production displayed significant relation with a concentration of sulphate and nitrate in the atmospheric aerosols suggesting that both decreases in pH and fertilization enhanced primary production. The impact of acidification on primary production was found to be 22%, whereas 78% was contributed by the nutrient increase. The atmospheric pollution is increasing rapidly over the northern Indian Ocean since past two decades due to rapid industrialization. Hence, it is suggested that the impact of atmospheric pollution on the coastal ecosystem must be included in the numerical models to predict possible changes in the coastal ecosystem due to climate change.

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Data availability

The data is derived through laboratory experiments, and all the data is presented in the manuscript. The data are available upon request to the corresponding author by email (sarmav@nio.org).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Director and Scientist-In-Charge for their encouragement and support. The support of Mr D. Vasu during coastal sampling is highly appreciated. Several project staff supported the collection of monthly sampling of aerosols, and their efforts are appreciated. We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions to improve the presentation of our manuscript. This publication has the NIO contribution number.

We would like to thank the Director, Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE), Ministry of Earth Science for funding through a project entitled “Comprehensive assessment of the rate of ocean acidification and their drivers along the east coast of India”. We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions to improve the presentation of our manuscript. This publication has the NIO contribution number of 6935

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Regional Centre, 176 Lawsons Bay Colony, Visakhapatnam, 530 017, India

    V. R. Kumari, B. Neeraja, D. N. Rao, V. R. D. Ghosh, G. R. Rajula & V. V. S. S. Sarma

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Ghaziabad, ND, India

    V. V. S. S. Sarma

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  1. V. R. Kumari
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  2. B. Neeraja
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  4. V. R. D. Ghosh
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Contributions

VRK: A collection of monthly aerosol samples and analysis of the atmospheric composition.

BN: Conducting in vitro experiments along with DNR and VRDG and analysis of samples.

DNR: Measurement of primary production, conducting experiments for primary production.

VRDG: Measurement of nutrients, conducting an experiment.

VVSS: The concept of the work, guidance and finalizing of the manuscript.

All authors contribute in writing, building concepts and finalizing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to V. V. S. S. Sarma.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kumari, V.R., Neeraja, B., Rao, D.N. et al. Impact of atmospheric dry deposition of nutrients on phytoplankton pigment composition and primary production in the coastal Bay of Bengal. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 82218–82231 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21477-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21477-3

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