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The contribution of attached Ulva prolifera on Pyropia aquaculture rafts to green tides in the Yellow Sea

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Abstract

Green tides caused by the unusual accumulation of high floating Ulva prolifera have occurred regularly in the Yellow Sea since 2007. The primary source of the Yellow Sea green tides is the attached algae on the Pyropia aquaculture rafts in the Subei Shoal. Ulva prolifera and Blidingia (Italic) sp. are the main species observed on Pyropia aquaculture rafts in the Subei Shoal. We found that U. prolifera has strong buoyancy and a rapid growth rate, which may explain why it is the dominant species of green tides that occur in the China's sea area of the Yellow Sea. The growth rate of floating U. prolifera was about 20%–31% d–1, which was much higher than Blidingia (Italic) sp. There were about 1.7 × 104 t of attached algae on the Pyropia aquaculture rafts in May 2012. We found that 39% of attached algae could float when the tide rose in the Subei Shoal, and U. prolifera accounted for 63% of the floating algae. Our analysis estimated that about 4 000 t of attached U. prolifera floated into the surrounding waters of the Subei Shoal during the recycling period of aquaculture rafts. These results suggest that the initial floating biomass of large-scale green tides in the Yellow Sea is determined by the U. prolifera biomass attached to Pyropia aquaculture rafts, further impacting the scale of the green tide.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Eco-Environmental Science and Technology, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, 266061, China

    Hongbin Han, Shiliang Fan, Wei Song, Yan Li, Jie Xiao, Zongling Wang, Xuelei Zhang & Dewen Ding

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Hongbin Han, Zongling Wang & Dewen Ding

  3. Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao, 266237, China

    Yan Li, Zongling Wang & Xuelei Zhang

Authors
  1. Hongbin Han
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  2. Shiliang Fan
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  3. Wei Song
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  4. Yan Li
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  5. Jie Xiao
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  6. Zongling Wang
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  7. Xuelei Zhang
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Correspondence to Zongling Wang.

Additional information

Foundation item: The National Key R&D Program of China under contract Nos 2016YFC1402104 and 2016YFC1402106; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41606190; the Shandong Natural Science Foundation under contract No. ZR2016DB22; the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Integrated Monitoring and Applied Technologies for Marine Harmful Algal Blooms, SOA under contract No. MATHAB 201806; the Creative Team Project of the Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology under contract No. LMEES-CTSP-2018-3.

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Han, H., Fan, S., Song, W. et al. The contribution of attached Ulva prolifera on Pyropia aquaculture rafts to green tides in the Yellow Sea. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 39, 101–106 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-019-1452-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-019-1452-0

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