Résumé: Phytoplankton blooms are an important, widespread phenomenon in open oceans, coastal waters and freshwaters, supporting food webs and essential ecosystem services. Blooms are even more important in exploited coastal waters for maintaining high resource production. However, the environmental factors driving blooms in shallow productive coastal waters are still unclear, making it difficult to assess how environmental fluctuations influence bloom phenology and productivity. To gain insights into bloom phenology, Chl a fluorescence and meteorological and hydrological parameters were monitored at high-frequency (15 min) and nutrient concentrations and phytoplankton abundance and diversity, were monitored weekly in a typical Mediterranean shallow coastal system (Thau Lagoon). This study was carried out from winter to late spring in two successive years with different climatic conditions: 2014/2015 was typical, but the winter of 2015/2016 was the warmest on record. Rising water temperature was the main driver of phytoplankton blooms. However, blooms were sometimes correlated with winds and sometimes correlated with salinity, suggesting nutrients were supplied by water transport via winds, saltier seawater intake, rain and water flow events. This finding indicates the joint role of these factors in determining the success of phytoplankton blooms. Furthermore, interannual variability showed that winter water temperature was higher in 2016 than in 2015, resulting in lower phytoplankton biomass accumulation in the following spring. Moreover, the phytoplankton abundances and diversity also changed: cyanobacteria (< 1 μm), picoeukaryotes (< 1 μm) and nanoeukaryotes (3–6 μm) increased to the detriment of larger phytoplankton such as diatoms. Water temperature is a key factor affecting phytoplankton bloom dynamics in shallow productive coastal waters and could become crucial with future global warming by modifying bloom phenology and changing phytoplankton community structure, in turn affecting the entire food web and ecosystem services.

Résumé: This work describes a method to model the optical properties over the (400−750 nm) spectral range of a dense microalgal culture using the chemical and physical properties of the algal cells. The method was based on a specific program called AlgaSim coupled with the adding–doubling method: at the individual cell scale, AlgaSim simulates the spectral properties of one model, three-layer spherical algal cell from its size and chemical composition. As a second step, the adding–doubling method makes it possible to retrieve the total transmittance of the algal medium from the optical properties of the individual algal cells. The method was tested by comparing the simulated total transmittance spectra for dense marine microalgal cultures of Isochrysis galbana (small flagellates) and Phaeodactylum tricornutum (diatoms) to spectra measured using an experimental spectrophotometric setup. Our study revealed that the total transmittance spectra simulated for the quasi-spherical cells of Isochrysis galbana were in good agreement with the measured spectra over the whole spectral range. For Phaeodactylum tricornutum, large differences between simulated and measured spectra were observed over the blue part of the transmittance spectra, probably due to non-spherical shape of the algal cells. Prediction of the algal cell density, mean size and pigment composition from the total transmittance spectra measured on algal samples was also investigated using the reversal of the method. Mean cell size was successfully predicted for both species. The cell density was also successfully predicted for spherical Isochrysis galbana, with a relative error below 7%, but not for elongated Phaeodactylum tricornutum with a relative error up to 26%. The pigments total quantity and composition, the carotenoids:chlorophyll ratio in particular, were also successfully predicted for Isochrysis galbana with a relative error below 8%. However, the pigment predictions and measurements for Phaeodactylum tricornutum showed large discrepancies, with a relative error up to 88%. These results give strong support for the development of a promising tool providing rapid and accurate estimations of biomass and physiological status of a dense microalgal culture based on only light transmittance properties.

Résumé: A plankton community (< 202 μm) from the St. Lawrence Estuary was isolated
in four outdoor mesocosms with SLOW and fast mixing regimes. Variations in the concentrations
of nutrients, chlorophyll a (Chl a), nitrogen transport rates and plankton species composition
were monitored over a 10 day period. The vertical mixing times (Tm) for the slow and
fast mixing regimes were 180 and 60 min, corresponding to a vertical eddy diffusivity (Kv) of
2.34 and 7.03 cm2 s–1, respectively. The different mixing regimes had a strong effect on the
physiology of the phytoplankton and the specific structure of the plankton assemblage. The
Slow mixing regime stimulated the development of a mixed community of flagellates, small
diatoms and proto-metazooplankton while the fast mixing regime triggered the development
of a large diatom-dominated community with lower abundances of proto-metazooplankton. At
the end of the 10 day experiment, the Chl a concentrations were 50 % higher in the mesocosms
with the fast mixing regime than in those with the slow mixing regime. These results indicate
that, under low nutrient conditions, higher turbulence gives a competitive advantage to diatoms
and decreases the zooplankton grazing pressure, resulting in net positive growth. Extrapolation
of these results to natural systems suggests that a wind-driven mixing event may increase
the net phytoplankton biomass production of a stratified water column, even if there is no external
input of nutrients.

Résumé: Dinoflagellate blooms are frequently observed under temporary eutrophication of coastal waters after heavy rains. Growth of these opportunistic microalgae is believed to be promoted by sudden input of nutrients and the absence or inefficiency of their natural enemies, such as grazers and parasites. Here, numerical simulations indicate that increasing nutrient availability not only promotes the formation of dinoflagellate blooms but can also stimulate their control by protozoan parasites. Moreover, high abundance of phytoplankton other than dinoflagellate hosts might have a significant dilution effect on the control of dinoflagellate blooms by parasites, either by resource competition with dinoflagellates (thus limiting the number of hosts available for infection) or by affecting numerical-functional responses of grazers that consume free-living parasite stages. These outcomes indicate that although both dinoflagellates and their protozoan parasites are directly affected by nutrient availability, the efficacy of the parasitic control of dinoflagellate blooms under temporary eutrophication depends strongly on the structure of the plankton community as a whole.

Résumé: The effects of grazing pressure and inorganic nutrient availability on the direct carbon transfer from freshly produced phytoplankton exudates to heterotrophic bacteria biomass production were studied in Mediterranean coastal waters. The short-term incorporation of (1)(3)C (H(1)(3)CO(3)) in phytoplankton and bacterial lipid biomarkers was measured as well as the total bacterial carbon production (BP), viral lysis and the microbial community structure under three experimental conditions: (1) High inorganic Nutrient and High Grazing (HN + HG), (2) High inorganic Nutrient and Low Grazing (HN + LG) and (3) under natural in situ conditions with Low inorganic Nutrient and High Grazing (LN + HG) during spring. Under phytoplankton bloom conditions (HN + LG), the bacterial use of freshly produced phytoplankton exudates as a source of carbon, estimated from (1)(3)C enrichment of bacterial lipids, contributed more than half of the total bacterial production. However, under conditions of high grazing pressure on phytoplankton with or without the addition of inorganic nutrients (HN + HG and LN + HG), the (1)(3)C enrichment of bacterial lipids was low compared with the high total bacterial production. BP therefore seems to depend mainly on freshly produced phytoplankton exudates during the early phase of phytoplankton bloom period. However, BP seems mainly relying on recycled carbon from viral lysis and predators under high grazing pressure.

Résumé: We describe a new transportable floating mesocosm platform with autonomous sensors. The platform has 9 separate units that can be transported by medium-sized research vessels and positioned in coastal waters. The in situ mesocosms are equipped with a set of sensors for measuring water temperature, conductivity, chlorophyll a fluorescence (Chl a), and dissolved oxygen concentration. It can take measurements every 2 min, store these measurements, and transmit them in real time. Each mesocosm has a pump with regulated flow to mix the water column. One of the floating units is used as an in situ observatory to monitor the water temperature and Chl a in the water around the mesocosms as well as weather data and the incident light. The main data logger on the platform sends all the data collected to a remote PC computer. This floating mesocosm platform was successfully deployed in 2010 and 2011 in Mediterranean coastal waters (Thau lagoon and Cretan Sea, respectively). Simultaneous, automatic, high temporal resolution monitoring of physical, chemical, and biological parameters in the mesocosms proved to be a powerful, noninvasive, and effective approach for i) monitoring the variations in physical and chemical parameters in real time and ii) assessing the short-term variations in Chl a and the pelagic food web metabolism (e.g., the community respiration, gross primary production, and net community production) in the mesocosms without any manipulation of water samples.