Cecchi, P., Garrido, M., Collos, Y., & Pasqualini, V. (2016). Water flux management and phytoplankton communities in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon. Part II: Mixotrophy of dinoflagellates as an adaptive strategy? Marine Pollution Bulletin, 108(1–2), 120–133.
Résumé: Dinoflagellate proliferation is common in coastal waters, and trophic strategies are often advanced to explain the success of these organisms. The Biguglia lagoon is a Mediterranean brackish ecosystem where eutrophication has long been an issue, and where dominance of dinoflagellates has persisted for several years. Monthly monitoring of fluorescence-based properties of phytoplankton communities carried out in 2010 suggested that photosynthesis alone could not support the observed situation all year round. Contrasting food webs developed depending on the hydrological season, with a gradual shift from autotrophy to heterotrophy. Progressively, microphytoplankton assemblages became unequivocally dominated by a Prorocentrum minimum bloom, which exhibited very weak effective photosynthetic performance, whereas paradoxically its theoretical capacities remained fully operational. Different environmental hypotheses explaining this discrepancy were examined, but rejected. We conclude that P. minimum bloom persistence is sustained by mixotrophic strategies, with complex compromises between phototrophy and phagotrophy, as evidenced by fluorescence-based observations.
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Garrido, M., Cecchi, P., Collos, Y., Agostini, S., & Pasqualini, V. (2016). Water flux management and phytoplankton communities in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon. Part I: How to promote dinoflagellate dominance? Marine Pollution Bulletin, 104(1–2), 139–152.
Résumé: The Biguglia lagoon is a shallow Mediterranean coastal ecosystem where eutrophication is increasing for years. A channel supplying freshwater was cleared in 2009 to enhance lagoon water circulation and alleviate dystrophic crises. Monthly monitoring was started in 2010 to document the impacts of this action on abiotic characteristics and phytoplankton communities. Three stations were surveyed (by microscopy and HPLC). Evidence suggests that this operation had an unexpected outcome. Salinity footprints indicated the succession of three main hydrological sequences that depended on rainfall and circulation pattern. Diatoms and dinoflagellates dominated the first sequence, characterized by heavy rainfall, while Prorocentrum minimum became progressively the dominant species in the second period (increasing salinities) with extensive bloom over the whole lagoon (5.93 × 10-5 cells·L− 1) during the third period. These phytoplankton successions and community structures underline the risk of pernicious effects arising from remediation efforts, in the present case based on increasing freshwater inputs.
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