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Development of a thin diatom layer observed in a stratified embayment in Japan

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Abstract

The temporal evolution of a thin phytoplankton layer was observed by field measurements using a research vessel and mooring instruments in the Yatsushiro Sea, a semi-enclosed narrow embayment in Japan, in early August 2013. The subsurface chlorophyll maximum developed into a thin layer within 2 days just below the pycnocline at around 10-m depth, where turbulent mixing (the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy) was weak (low). The layer persisted for 1.5 to 2 days and declined after irradiance drastically decreased at the sea surface. At the peak period, the layer thickness, which is defined as the full-width at half-maximum of the peak in chlorophyll a concentration, ranged from 0.6 to 1.4 m, and the maximum concentration reached 42.3 mg m−3. The horizontal extent of the layer was approximately 10 km along the longitudinal axis of the bay. The phytoplankton population characterized by the layer was dominated by a chain-forming centric diatom, Chaetoceros spp. The formation mechanisms of the thin diatom layer were investigated using the observed data and a vertical one-dimensional model that includes physical and biological processes. The results suggest that the development of the thin layer was caused by in situ growth and aggregation due to nutrient-dependent sinking of the species under weak turbulence. The study highlights that continuous multidisciplinary observations and understanding species-specific physiological responses to environmental variations are necessary to elucidate drastically fluctuating phytoplankton dynamics in a coastal water.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the captains and crews of R/V Shirafuji-maru for their cooperation in conducting the field observation. The authors also thank S. Kitatsuji for providing information about predators. The data by the mooring system at Stn. A were obtained with funding from the Japan Fisheries Agency-commissioned project for addressing red tides and oxygen-depleted water masses. The work was supported in part by the grant from JSPS KAKENHI Grant number 25340024, and by the Collaborative Research Program of Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Institute of Fisheries and Environment of Inland Sea, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 2-17-5 Maruishi, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima, 739-0452, Japan

    Goh Onitsuka, Tomoyuki Shikata & Kazuo Abe

  2. Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa Oiwake-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Yutaka Yoshikawa

  3. Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasuga-koen, Kasuga, Fukuoka, 816-8580, Japan

    Kei Yufu & Takeshi Matsuno

  4. Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 1551-8 Taira-machi, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, 851-2213, Japan

    Takahisa Tokunaga & Katsunori Kimoto

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  1. Goh Onitsuka
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  2. Yutaka Yoshikawa
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  3. Tomoyuki Shikata
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Correspondence to Goh Onitsuka.

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Onitsuka, G., Yoshikawa, Y., Shikata, T. et al. Development of a thin diatom layer observed in a stratified embayment in Japan. J Oceanogr 74, 351–365 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-018-0466-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-018-0466-0

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