Exceptional blooms of diatoms associated with anomalous hydrographic conditions in the Southern Bight in early 1977
Reid, Ph.C. (1983). Exceptional blooms of diatoms associated with anomalous hydrographic conditions in the Southern Bight in early 1977. J. Plankton Res. 5(5): 755-765
In: Journal of Plankton Research. Oxford University Press: New York,. ISSN 0142-7873; e-ISSN 1464-3774, more
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| Keywords |
Algae > Diatoms
Algal blooms
Environmental effects > Light effects
Environmental effects > Salinity effects
Environmental effects > Temperature effects
Properties > Chemical properties > Salinity
Properties > Physical properties > Thermodynamic properties > Temperature
Radiations > Electromagnetic radiation > Light
Water masses
Water mixing
Bacillariophycidae [WoRMS]
Marine/Coastal |
| Abstract |
A study of the plankton along a Continuous Plankton Recorder route between Leith (Edinburgh) and Rotterdam has drawn attention to an exceptional event in early 1977. Large and early blooms of diatoms occurred at the southern end of the route in the central Southern Bight from January to May 1977. These blooms were associated with high numbers of copepods for the time of year. Alternative explanations for the diatom blooms are discussed: first, that they developed from significantly larger than usual overwintering standing stocks which survived from the autumn of 1976 and second, that the blooms were a response to exceptional hydrographic and meteorological conditions in the Southern Bight in early 1977. The juxtaposition of two very different water masses off the Dutch coast may, through frontal stratification, have reduced the depth of the mixed layer and thus increased the exposure of the phytoplankton to light. |
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