Pulsed wind-driven control of phytoplankton biomass at a groundwater-enriched nearshore environment.

Autor: Basterretxea G; Department of Marine Ecology, IMEDEA (UIB-CSIC), Miquel Marques 21, 07190, Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain. Electronic address: gotzon@imedea.uib-csic.es., Font-Muñoz JS; Department of Marine Ecology, IMEDEA (UIB-CSIC), Miquel Marques 21, 07190, Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain., Kane M; Department of Marine Ecology, IMEDEA (UIB-CSIC), Miquel Marques 21, 07190, Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain., Regaudie-de-Gioux A; Dyneco-Pelagos, French Institute for Sea Research, 1625 route de Sainte Anne, 29280 Plouzané, France., Satta CT; Agenzia Regionale per la Ricerca in Agricoltura (Agris), Loc. Bonassari SS 291, 07100 Sassari, Italy., Tuval I; Department of Marine Ecology, IMEDEA (UIB-CSIC), Miquel Marques 21, 07190, Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Dec 10; Vol. 955, pp. 177123. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 21.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177123
Abstrakt: Along some Mediterranean coastal areas and other world regions, nutrient and chlorophyll concentrations often show gradient increases of up to one order of magnitude perpendicular to the coast. This nearshore stripe, extending a few hundred meters from the coast, is enriched by submarine groundwater discharges (SGD) containing elevated nutrient concentrations that may eventually sustain high biomass phytoplankton blooms. During a survey carried out in the summer of 2018, we examined the short-term (hours) variability of the phytoplankton biomass (measured as chlorophyll; Chl) in response to environmental changes associated with SGD and wind forcing in the nearshore waters of Palma Beach (Mediterranean Sea). Continuous CTD records revealed a general salinity decline indicative of SGD along the shoreline. Large and pulsed salinity fluctuations (i.e. 2-3 psu variations, 1-4 h) were observed each day that were consistent with offshore advection episodes of the lower salinity water retained in the nearshore (peak crosshore velocity 5-6 cm s -1 ). Chl near the shoreline was markedly higher than offshore (3.55 ± 1.29 and 0.68 ± 0.27 mg m -3 respectively) but recurrently fluctuated in the afternoon to up to >7 mg m -3 . Primary production estimations showed that despite the higher production in the nearshore (50.29 ± 10.98 μmol O 2 L -1 d -1 , 4-fold offshore values) productivity per unit chlorophyll did not significantly vary (p > 0.01) therefore suggesting that, at this time scales, high biomass episodes in the nearshore are driven by an accumulation mechanism. Statistical analysis (CCA) demonstrates that Chl variability is largely explained (93 %) by variations in wind and current velocity. Our results provide evidence that the dynamics of this nearshore environment are modulated by the interplay between the shoreward wind-induced flow and the offshore directed density flow. This mechanism could explain the occurrence and episodic nature of high biomass blooms in the nearshore, as well as be an important factor influencing the microbial community structure at the coastal zone.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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