Competition of bloom-forming marine phytoplankton at low nutrientconcentrations
Hanhua Hu , Jun Zhang , Weidong Chen
DOI:
Received May 28, 2010,Revised September 20, 2010, Accepted , Available online
Volume 23,2011,Pages 656-663
- Summary
- References
- Related Articles
Competition of three bloom-forming marine phytoplankton (diatom Skeletonema costatum, and dinoflagellates Prorocentrum
minimum and Alexandrium tamarense) was studied through a series of multispecies cultures with di erent nitrate (NaNO3) and
phosphate (NaH2PO4) levels and excess silicate to interpret red tide algae succession. S. costatum outgrew the other two dinoflagellates
in nitrate and phosphate replete cultures with 10 mol/L Na2SiO3. Under nitrate limited (8.82 mol/L NaNO3) conditions, the growth
of S. costatum was also dominant when phosphate concentrations were from 3.6 to 108 mol/L. Cell density of the two dinoflagellates
only increased slightly, to less than 400 and 600 cells/mL, respectively. Cell density of S. costatum decreased with time before day
12, and then increased to 4000 cells/mL (1.5 mg/L dry biomass) at NaNO3 concentrations between 88.2 and 882 mol/L with limited
phosphate (0.36 mol/L NaH2PO4) levels. In addition, P. minimum grew well with a maximal cell density of 1690–2100 cells/mL
(0.5–0.6 mg/L dry biomass). Although S. costatum initially grew fast, its cell density decreased quickly with time later in the growth
phase and the two dinoflagellates were dominant under the nitrate-limited and high nitrate conditions with limited phosphate. These
results indicated that the diatom was a poor competitor compared to the two dinoflagellates under limited phosphate; however, it grew
well under limited nitrate when growth of the dinoflagellates was near detection limits.
