Evidence of a planktonic food web response to changes in nutrient input dynamics in the Mar Menor coastal lagoon, Spain

By Á. Pérez-Ruzafa, J. Gilabert, J. Gutiérrez, A. I. Fernández, C. Marcos, S. Sabah. Hydrobiologia, 2002

180 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Nutrient input dynamics in the Mar Menor coastal lagoon has recently changed as a consequence of changes in agricultural practises. An interannual comparison of the environmental variables and the planktonic biomass size-spectra was performed between 1988 and 1997. While nitrate concentration was low in 1988, the values in 1997 increased considerably. Since 1995, two alloctonous jellyfish species (Rhyzostoma pulmo and Cotylorhiza tuberculata) occurred in large numbers in summer time and reached peak abundance in summer of 1997. The size-spectra analysis comparison revealed that, in spite of changes in nutrient input that stimulated the growth of larger phytoplankton cells, there were no significant differences in the spectra slope which followed a similar seasonal trend in both years. However, the plankton biovolume considered under the size range compared (between 2 and 1000 μm diameter) was, paradoxically, always lower in 1997. Given that there were higher nutrient levels in 1997, this finding suggest a strong top-down control mechanism of size structure. Gut contents of jellyfishes showed their preference for large diatoms, tintinnids, veliger larvae and copepods, corroborating that size structure in these assemblages can be subject to top-down control. The implication of these results is that the feeding activities of large gelatinous zooplankton (jellyfishes) may play an important role controlling the consequences of eutrophication within the Mar Menor coastal lagoon.

Subfields: Environmental Chemistry, Oceanography, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0974c25d9478268a9e446b08a4e8ef0022a309b9

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Citations in the corpus

Biovolume determination of phytoplankton guilds in transitional water ecosystems of Mediterranean Ecoregion (2007, background): “…the influence of environmental forcing and pollution on the size structure of phytoplankton guilds in transitional water ecosystems and coastal marine areas (Cottingham, 1999, Vadrucci et al., 2002, Perez-Ruzafa et al., 2002, Ansotegui et al., 2003, Sabetta et al., 2005, Cermeño et al., 2005).”
Life cycle of the jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo (Scyphozoa: Rhizostomeae) and its distribution, seasonality and inter-annual variability along the Catalan coast and the Mar Menor (Spain, NW Mediterranean) (2011, background): “The appearance and establishment of these two species coincided with increased nutrient inputs from human activities, especially agriculture (Perez-Ruzafa et al. 2002).”
Jellyfish populations in the Mediterranean Sea (2012, background): “pulmo directly consumes diatoms in Mar Menor, and may benefit from increased production due to eutrophication (PÉREz-RUzAfA et al., 2002; LILLEy et al., 2009).”