Effects of river water of different origin on the growth of marine dinoflagellates and diatoms in laboratory cultures

Abstract

The hypothesis that acid humic-rich river water selectively favours dinoflagellates in comparison to diatoms in coastal waters was tested in two sets of laboratory experiments using unialgal cultures of marine phytoplankton. In the first experiment, three dinoflagellates, i.e., Prorocentrum minimum (Pav.) J. Schiller, P. micans Ehrenberg and Amphidinium carterae Hulburt, and three diatoms, i.e., Attheya decora T. West, Skeletonema costatum (Grev.) Cleve and Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin, were grown in a mixture of 80% coastal ( S 20%.) and 20% river water. Water from seven different rivers was used. Four rivers had a high humic content (yellow substance 22.1 ± 0.9 · m −1) but lower inorganic N and P concentrations (“forest rivers”) while three rivers (“agricultural rivers”) had a lower humic content (10.7 ± 1.3 · m −1) but inorganic nutrient concentrations approximately three times as high as the forest rivers. The growth rates for the dinoflagellates were significantly higher in the medium with forest river water compared to the mixtures with agricultural river water while the opposite was true for the diatoms. In the second type of experiment, the diatom Ditylum brightwellii (T. West) Grun and the dinoflagellate P. minimum were grown, as semicontinuous dilution cultures, in mixtures of 90% coastal water ( S 20%.) and 10% river water. Water from four different rivers was used, one draining mainly agricultural soils and the other acidified humic-rich forested soils. River water of agricultural origin supported a higher D. brightwellii biomass and growth rate than river water draining forested soils while for P. minimum the opposite was true. Decreasing cell P quotas and increasing alkaline phosphatase activity indicated that D. brightwellii was P-deficient, especially when agricultural river water was added, while these physiological indices suggested that P. minimum cultures were not P-starved. Our results support the hypothesis that the discharge of acidified river water, rich in humic substances, to coastal waters, can play a role in shifting the species composition from diatoms to dinoflagellates.