Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea

A large bloom of Prymnesium polylepis occurred in the Baltic Sea during the winter 2007 – spring 2008. Based on numerous reports of strong allelopathic effects on phytoplankton exerted by P. polylepis and its toxicity to grazers, we hypothesized that during this period negative correlations will be...

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Main Authors:	Gorokhova, Elena, Hajdu, Susanna, Larsson, Ulf
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2014
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4231118/

id	pubmed-4231118
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-42311182014-11-18 Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea Gorokhova, Elena Hajdu, Susanna Larsson, Ulf Research Article A large bloom of Prymnesium polylepis occurred in the Baltic Sea during the winter 2007 – spring 2008. Based on numerous reports of strong allelopathic effects on phytoplankton exerted by P. polylepis and its toxicity to grazers, we hypothesized that during this period negative correlations will be observed between P. polylepis and (1) main phytoplankton groups contributing to the spring bloom (i.e., diatoms and dinoflagellates), and (2) zooplankton growth and abundance. To test these hypotheses, we analyzed inter-annual variability in phytoplankton and zooplankton dynamics as well as growth indices (RNA∶DNA ratio) in dominant zooplankton in relation to the Prymnesium abundance and biomass. Contrary to the hypothesized relationships, no measurable negative responses to P. polylepis were observed for either the total phytoplankton stocks or the zooplankton community. The only negative response, possibly associated with P. polylepis occurrence, was significantly lower abundance of dinoflagellates both during and after the bloom in 2008. Moreover, contrary to the expected negative effects, there were significantly higher total phytoplankton abundance as well as significantly higher winter abundance and winter-spring RNA∶DNA ratio in dominant zooplankton species in 2008, indicating that P. polylepis bloom coincided with favourable feeding conditions for zooplankton. Thus, primary consumers, and consequently also zooplanktivores (e.g., larval fish and mysids), may benefit from haptophyte blooms, particularly in winter, when phytoplankton is scarce. Public Library of Science 2014-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4231118/ /pubmed/25393031 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0112985 Text en © 2014 Gorokhova et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Gorokhova, Elena Hajdu, Susanna Larsson, Ulf
spellingShingle	Gorokhova, Elena Hajdu, Susanna Larsson, Ulf Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea
author_facet	Gorokhova, Elena Hajdu, Susanna Larsson, Ulf
author_sort	Gorokhova, Elena
title	Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea
title_short	Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea
title_full	Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea
title_fullStr	Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea
title_full_unstemmed	Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea
title_sort	responses of phyto- and zooplankton communities to prymnesium polylepis (prymnesiales) bloom in the baltic sea
description	A large bloom of Prymnesium polylepis occurred in the Baltic Sea during the winter 2007 – spring 2008. Based on numerous reports of strong allelopathic effects on phytoplankton exerted by P. polylepis and its toxicity to grazers, we hypothesized that during this period negative correlations will be observed between P. polylepis and (1) main phytoplankton groups contributing to the spring bloom (i.e., diatoms and dinoflagellates), and (2) zooplankton growth and abundance. To test these hypotheses, we analyzed inter-annual variability in phytoplankton and zooplankton dynamics as well as growth indices (RNA∶DNA ratio) in dominant zooplankton in relation to the Prymnesium abundance and biomass. Contrary to the hypothesized relationships, no measurable negative responses to P. polylepis were observed for either the total phytoplankton stocks or the zooplankton community. The only negative response, possibly associated with P. polylepis occurrence, was significantly lower abundance of dinoflagellates both during and after the bloom in 2008. Moreover, contrary to the expected negative effects, there were significantly higher total phytoplankton abundance as well as significantly higher winter abundance and winter-spring RNA∶DNA ratio in dominant zooplankton species in 2008, indicating that P. polylepis bloom coincided with favourable feeding conditions for zooplankton. Thus, primary consumers, and consequently also zooplanktivores (e.g., larval fish and mysids), may benefit from haptophyte blooms, particularly in winter, when phytoplankton is scarce.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2014
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4231118/
_version_	1613156346349223936

Responses of Phyto- and Zooplankton Communities to Prymnesium polylepis (Prymnesiales) Bloom in the Baltic Sea

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