Impact of eelgrass bed recovery and expansion on phytoplankton growth through nutrient competition

Abstract

Eelgrass beds are highly productive and support diverse faunal assemblages; they also take in nutrients from the water and prevent excessive phytoplankton growth in eutrophic coastal waters through the reduction of available nutrients. Despite its importance, the global distribution of eelgrass has declined worldwide. In eutrophic areas with high chlorophyll a (Chl.a) concentrations, natural recovery of eelgrass beds after eutrophication is possible. To facilitate this, sufficient water clarity can be reached after a large enough decrease in phytoplankton concentration. In this study, we proposed a novel indicator for the maximum possible Secchi depth (MPSD), defined as the Secchi depth when the Chl.a concentration is equal to a reference Chl.a concentration. We applied the MPSD to evaluate water clarity improvements through the reduction of terrigenous anthropogenic nutrient loading. We found that phytoplankton did not control water clarity in the study area, which was instead controlled by background factors. Therefore, improvements in water clarity would not be expected after reducing terrigenous anthropogenic nutrient loading. The habitat of Zostera marina is determined by light availability, so we investigated a potential area with ≥20% surface irradiance and Z. marina existed in 27% of it (100 of 373 ha). The maximum further recovery of eelgrass by Secchi depth improvements to the MPSD was estimated at 36 ha. The impact of eelgrass recovery and expansion on phytoplankton growth from May to September was evaluated by a mathematical model under two scenarios: the current eelgrass distribution (100 ha) and potential maximum eelgrass distribution (373 ha). A Chl.a decrease of 1.0–3.0 μg l−1 from 4.0 to 7.0 μg l−1 was achieved in an area from May to July, and the improvement decreased with time. These evaluation methods and findings could help us gain a better understanding of the nutrient management in seagrass-vegetated semi-enclosed seas subjected to anthropogenic nutrient input.