Garrido, M., Cecchi, P., Malet, N., Bec, B., Torre, F., & Pasqualini, V. (2019). Evaluation of FluoroProbe® performance for the phytoplankton-based assessment of the ecological status of Mediterranean coastal lagoons. Environ Monit Assess, 191(4), 204.
Résumé: The European Water Framework Directive and several other legislations worldwide have selected phytoplankton for monitoring the ecological status of surface waters. This assessment is a complicated task in coastal lagoons due to their intrinsic variability, prompting moves to use real-time measurements. Here, we tested the ability of the submersible spectrofluorometer FluoroProbe® to accurately estimate the phytoplankton biomass and to efficiently discriminate spectral groups in Mediterranean coastal lagoons, by using sub-surface water samples (n = 107) collected at Biguglia lagoon (Corsica) in different environmental situations (salinity and trophic state) from March 2012 to December 2014. We compared the estimates of biomass and phytoplankton group composition obtained with the FluoroProbe® (in situ and lab measurements) with the spectrofluorimetrically measured biomass and HPLC-derived quantifications of pigment concentrations. FluoroProbe® provided good estimates of the total phytoplankton biomass (particularly, the lab measurements). The FluoroProbe® data were significantly correlated with the HPLC results, except for the in situ measurements of very weak concentrations of blue-green and red algae. Our findings indicate that factory-calibrated FluoroProbe® is an efficient and easy-to-use real-time phytoplankton monitoring tool in coastal lagoons, especially as an early warning system for the detection of potentially harmful algal blooms. Practical instructions dedicated to non-specialist field operators are provided. A simple and efficient method for discarding in situ measurement outliers is also proposed.
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Leruste, A., Guilhaumon, F., de Wit, R., Malet, N., Collos, Y., & Bec, B. (2019). Phytoplankton strategies to exploit nutrients in coastal lagoons with different eutrophication status during re-oligotrophication. Aquatic Microbial Ecology, 83(2), 131–146.
Résumé: We studied a mesotrophic and a hypertrophic Mediterranean coastal lagoon, both of which had been simultaneously subjected to a nutrient input reduction for 9 yr. We compared these 2 lagoons to an oligotrophic coastal lagoon. Using bioassays comprising 24 h incubations with added phosphorus and/or ammonium, we investigated the response of the phytoplankton communities to nutrient enrichment during summer in terms of biomass, size class structure, abundance and growth. For nitrogen and phosphorus, we identified which nutrient limited phytoplankton growth, and what strategies of nutrient exploitation the communities adopted to cope with these limitations. Ultraphytoplankton dominated the 3 communities, but it differed in composition among the lagoons. Green algae dominated in the hypertrophic lagoon, whereas the mesotrophic lagoon presented a higher diversity of phytoplankton groups. Picocyanobacteria and small diatoms were the most abundant groups in the oligotrophic lagoon, although they accounted for less biomass than green algae. The communities of the mesotrophic and the hypertrophic lagoons strongly responded to the nutrient pulse, showing that the re-oligotrophication trajectories of these lagoons were still very vulnerable to occasional eutrophication events. On the other hand, the oligotrophic lagoon marginally responded to the enrichment, indicating its adaptation to nutrient-depleted conditions. We observed a shift along the eutrophication gradient, from a co-limitation by N and P in the oligotrophic and the mesotrophic lagoons to a single and strong N limitation in the hypertrophic lagoon. Each community demonstrated specific use of internal, external or recycled nutrient pools under experimentally induced limitation.
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