Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorMcQuatters-Gollop, Abigail
dc.contributor.otherSchool of Biological and Marine Sciencesen_US
dc.date.accessioned2011-06-28T15:28:04Z
dc.date.available2011-06-28T15:28:04Z
dc.date.issued2008
dc.date.issued2008
dc.identifierNot availableen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/522
dc.description.abstract

Eutrophication of marine and coastal waters is a growing concern throughout Europe's regional seas and an historical problem in the Black Sea and regions of the North-East Atlantic, particularly the North Sea. As the base of the marine pelagic food web, phytoplankton are sensitive indicators of environmental change and therefore may be used as indicators of eutrophication for the monitoring, management and mitigation of the effects of nutrient loading on coastal and marine ecosystems. However, due to the interactive effects of climate and eutrophication, it can be difficult to separate the climate-driven response of phytoplankton from changes induced by excess nutrients. Therefore, the aim of this work is to separate these two signals in order to explore eutrophication effects. Without historical knowledge of 'pristine' or unimpacted ecosystem states it is difficult to identify and assess the severity and magnitude of change. Even where spatially and temporally comprehensive ecological datasets are available, equivalent nutrient timeseries are rare and a method of linking phytoplankton dynamics to eutrophication is required. Because open sea ecosystems are less impacted by anthropogenic nutrients than those near shore, offshore regions may be used as reference areas in comparison with coastal systems to investigate the effects of nutrient loading. Changes observed solely in coastal systems are most likely a result of local processes (such as eutrophication) while those observed in both open sea and coastal areas are probably a response to large-scale drivers (such as climate). Therefore the comparison of coastal and open sea data may reveal different (or similar) patterns of change in phytoplankton indicators. Throughout most of the North-East Atlantic climate appears to override the effects of nutrients on phytoplankton dynamics, although the two drivers have been found to have synergistic effects resulting in increasing chlorophyll levels in the coastal North Sea. Additionally, the 1980s North-East Atlantic regime shift is clearly visible in coastal and open sea chlorophyll concentrations and diatom and dinoflagellate abundances, demonstrating the sensitivity of phytoplankton as indicators at both the biomass and functional group scales. In the Black Sea, an observed decrease in chlorophyll appears to be at least partially a result of changes in climate and is not solely attributable to the 'recovery' of the Black Sea ecosystem. Black Sea chlorophyll has also undergone a possible recent (2002) regime shift, although its significance is difficult to determine due to the short time-series of chlorophyll data available. The successful use of phytoplankton as indicators of eutrophication in these two disparate sea regions at two different ecological scales suggests that the method of comparing coastal and open sea phytoplankton data could be applied to other European seas as a means of distinguishing between the effects of climate and eutrophication.

dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Plymouthen_US
dc.titlePhytoplankton as indicators for eutrophication in Europe's regional seasen_US
dc.typeThesis
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.24382/4302


Files in this item

Thumbnail
Thumbnail

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record


All items in PEARL are protected by copyright law.
Author manuscripts deposited to comply with open access mandates are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author.
Theme by 
Atmire NV