Abstract
An experiment was carried out to determine the effects of a temperature increase on the composition of brackish-water phytoplankton populations. Treatments were partitioned in duplicate and results were tested at the 95% confidence level with a randomized-block analysis of variance. The studies were made between 9 February and 18 April 1970 in four 14-m 3 plastic pools located adjacent to the Pamlico River estuary, North Carolina, U.S.A. Temperatures in the two control pools ranged from 5 to 19 °C and in heated pools from 10 to 27 °C during the study. Heated pools averaged 5·5 °C warmer than unheated. The only statistically significant effect noted on phytoplankton class composition was an increase in the dinoflagellate cell concentrations in the heated pools. Phytoplankton populations in the heated pools were more diverse and were composed of larger cells (cells averaged 5·2 times larger in volume) than in controls. It appeared that the warming tended to accelerate the succession of the late winter-early spring population and produced a more mature successional stage. Thus the warming of brackish water, possibly by heated effluents from electric generating plants, can alter the composition of phytoplankton populations.
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