Abstract
Alexandrium blooms in the northwest area of the Bohai Sea (Qinhuangdao coastal area), China, produce large amounts of toxins that could be enriched in shellfish and consequently harm human bodies. To understand the succession of the phytoplankton community structure during Alexandrium bloom events in the northwest area of the Bohai Sea off Qinhuangdao from April 2 to May 7, 2019, microscopy observations and high-performance chromatography (HPLC)-pigment analysis were performed. Sixty species of phytoplankton were identified, mainly diatoms and dinoflagellates. The abundance of Alexandrium reached the maximum on April 16 (3.3×103 cells/L). HPLC-pigment CHEMTAX analysis showed that the phytoplankton community was composed mainly of diatoms, dinoflagellates, prasinophytes, and cryptophytes. Diatoms were the main contributor to the total Chl-a pool. There was a downward trend for the proportion of diatom biomass to the total Chl-a pool, followed by an upward trend. The proportion of dinoflagellate biomass showed the opposite trend, whereas that of the prasinophyte biomass presented an obvious increasing trend. Temperature, nutrients, and nutrient structures were the main factors on the distribution of different phytoplankton groups in the study area as shown in the redundancy analysis. This work illustrates the succession of phytoplankton community structures during Alexandrium blooms and provided a theoretical basis for studies on the mechanism underlying the outbreak of harmful algal blooms in sea areas.
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Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Mr. Liqiang FAN and Mrs. Qianqian GENG from Key Laboratory of Testing and Evaluation for Aquatic Product Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China, for assistance in field investigation and sample analysis.
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Supported by the Special Research for the Science and Technology Basic Resources Investigation Program of China (No. 2018FY100200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31772075, 32072329), and the Project of Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation of China (No. BK20171262)
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Xie, Y., Ding, R., Zha, D. et al. Phytoplankton community dynamics during Alexandrium blooms in 2019 off the Qinhuangdao coast, Bohai Sea, China. J. Ocean. Limnol. 40, 2416–2429 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-022-1375-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-022-1375-z