Impacts of sub-micrometer sediment particles on early-stage growth and survival of the kelp Ecklonia bicyclis

Akira Matsumoto,Hisayuki Arakawa,Minami Sato

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-75796-x

Akira Matsumoto, Hisayuki Arakawa + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75796-x

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Abstract

Marine forests have declined in many urbanized regions in recent years. One cause is the inflow of fine particles into coastal rocky shores. We examined the influence of sub-micrometre (sub-micro) particles on the early growth stages of the large brown macrophyte Ecklonia bicyclis. The percentage of substrate attachment of zoospores decreased with an increase in sub-micro sediments. As the size of the particles decreased, the negative effect became greater. There was an increase in poor levels of gametophyte survival and growth as more and smaller sediment was deposited. We consider that the causes of these phenomena owing to increasing amounts of sediment is a decrease in availability of substrate for zoospore attachment and that of area for substance exchange on the gametophytes. We also evaluated the effects in sea areas, based on the amount and size distribution of seabed sediment in the algal communities deforested by particles, and found that the inhibition of zoospore attachment and gametophyte growth by sub-micro particles was remarkably large. The sub-micro sediment on the substrate has seriously negative effects on the early stages of macrophytes. Inflow of very fine particles to natural marine forests may result in severe degradation of rocky reef ecosystems.

Highlights

Communities composed of large brown algae are major primary producers and maintain coastal e cosystems[1,2]
The increase in particles in the sea area causes an increase in the concentration of suspended particles in seawater and/or sediment particles on the seabed
When the sediment particles increase in the kelp forest, the canopy is replaced by turf-forming c ommunities[3,17,18,19]

Summary

Introduction

Communities composed of large brown algae are major primary producers and maintain coastal e cosystems[1,2]. This study used laboratory experiments to estimate the impact of fine sedimentary particles in the field on the early stage of macrophyte growth, and the influences of sub-micro size sedimentary particles on zoospore attachment to the substrate and on gametophyte growth and survival. We used these results to evaluate the Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:20689. Effects of sub-micro particles on the initial depletion of E. bicyclis in sea areas in Mio, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, where kelp communities were deforested by particles

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