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An ecological model for the Scheldt estuary and tidal rivers ecosystem: spatial and temporal variability of plankton

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Abstract

This paper presents the formulation, structure, and governing equations of an ecosystem model developed for the Scheldt estuary and the tidal river network. The model has twelve state variables: nitrate, ammonium, phosphate, dissolved silica, freshwater and marine phytoplankton (chlorophytes and diatoms), freshwater zooplankton (ciliates, rotifers, and copepods), and benthic detritus. The ecological model is coupled to the 1-D tidal resolving version of the Second-generation Louvain-la-neuve ice-ocean Model (SLIM) (http://www.climate.be/SLIM). The model successfully simulates the observed longitudinal and seasonal variation of plankton in the Scheldt estuary. The phytoplankton production in the estuary is governed by temperature, underwater available light, turbidity, nutrients, and discharge. Of all these factors, discharge seems to be dominant. High discharge increases the turbidity in the water column and thus reduces the underwater light, while low discharge means decreased nutrients. The marine phytoplankton species were present as far to the upstream limits of the brackish waters, with diatoms dominating in the spring and chlorophytes in early summer. The freshwater phytoplankton are seen from late spring to summer. Freshwater zooplankton followed the evolution of freshwater phytoplankton.

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Acknowledgments

The author Jaya Naithani is grateful to Dr Klaas Deneudt for all the help provided in locating the data. Thanks are also due to the two reviewers for their careful, critical, and constructive comments. This research was conducted in the framework of the Interuniversity Attraction Pole TIMOTHY (IAP VI. 13), funded by Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO), and the project “Taking up the challenge of multi-scale marine modelling”, which is funded by the Communauté Fran?aise de Belgique under contract ARC10/15-028 (Actions de recherche concertées) with the aim of developing and applying SLIM. Computational resources were provided by the supercomputing facilities of the Université catholique de Louvain (CISM/UCL) and the Consortium des Equipment de Calcul Intensif en Féderation Wallonie Bruxelles (CECI) funded by the Fond de la Recherche Scientifique de Belgique (FRS-FNRS).

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  1. Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (IMMC), Université catholique de Louvain, 4 Avenue G. Lemaître, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    J. Naithani, B. de Brye & V. Legat

  2. Section Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Ghent, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    E. Buyze & W. Vyverman

  3. Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (IMMC) & Earth and Life Institute (ELI), Université catholique de Louvain, 4 Avenue G. Lemaître, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    E. Deleersnijder

  4. Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics (DIAM), Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands

    E. Deleersnijder

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  1. J. Naithani
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Naithani, J., de Brye, B., Buyze, E. et al. An ecological model for the Scheldt estuary and tidal rivers ecosystem: spatial and temporal variability of plankton. Hydrobiologia 775, 51–67 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2710-1

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