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1.
We examined the spatial and temporal variability in drift macroalgal abundance in two seagrass dominated estuarine systems on the Texas coast: Redfish Bay (in the Copano-Aransas Estuary) and Lower Laguna Madre. Measurements of benthic macroalgal variability were made in conjunction with a suite of biotic (seagrass biomass, percent cover, blade width and length, shoot density, epiphyte biomass, seagrass blade C:N ratios, and drift macroalgal abundance and composition) and abiotic (inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, chlorophylla, total suspended solids, light attenuation, salinity, temperature, total organic carbon and porewater NH4 +) indicators. All parameters were measured at 30 sites within each estuary semiannually from July 2002 to February 2004. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to examine relationships between drift macroalgal abundance and biotic and abiotic parameters. In both Redfish Bay and Lower Laguna Madre, drift macroalgal distribution was widespread, and during three of four sampling periods, abundance was equal to abovegro und biomass ofThalassia testudinum, the dominant seagrass. Drift macro algal abundance was highly variable within sites, between sites, and between seasons in both estuaries. No significant differences in drift macroalgal abundance were found between Redfish Bay and Lower Laguna Madre. In Redfish Bay, drift macroalgae (90.1±10.2 gm−2) tended to accumulate in bare patches within seagrass beds. In Lower Laguna Madre, drift macroalgae (72.7±10.7 gm−2) tended to accumulate in areas of dense seagrass cover rather than in bare areas. We found no relationship between drift macroalgal abundance and low (<2μM) water column nutrient concentrations, and although several of our measured parameters were related to drift macroalgal abundance, none alone sufficiently explained the variability in abundance noted between the two estuarine systems. The contrasting patterns of macroalgal accumulation between Redrish Bay and Lower Laguna Madre likely reflect differences in water circulation characteristics between the two regions as dictated by local physiography, in cluding the shape and orientation of the lagoons, with seasonal variations in macroalgal abundance related to changes in freshwater inflow and nutrient loading.  相似文献   

2.
The Laguna Madre has experienced a persistent bloom ofAureoumbra lagunensis for over eight years. The persistence of this bloom may be due in part to the often hypersaline conditions in Laguna Madre (40–60 psu) that favor the growth ofA. lagunensis. Above-normal rainfall in the fall of 1997 reduced the salinities in Baffin Bay from >40 to<20 psu.A. lagunensis cell densities dropped from>106 cells ml−1 in July 1997 to c. 200 cells ml−1 in January 1998. During this time of low brown tide density, phytoplankton biomass generally remained high and the Laguna Madre experienced successive blooms of diatoms (Rhizosolenia spp.) and cyanobacteria. Hypersaline conditions returned in 1998 and brown tide densities increased to>0.5 × 106 cells ml−1 by summer. The extraordinary persistence of the brown tide and the unusual sequence of intense blooms may be related in part to the reduction of zooplankton populations. Microzooplankton populations declined following the above-normal rain in the fall of 1997; populations did not recover until fall 1998. Copepod populations also declined sharply and remained low in Laguna Madre, but recovered by summer 1998 in Baffin Bay. Dilution experiments indicated that microzooplankton grazing and phytoplankton growth were usually balanced when measured during our cruises. The rapid recovery of theA. lagunensis bloom suggests that this alga may be a more resilient component of the Laguna Madre flora than previously suspected.  相似文献   

3.
It has been assumed that because seagrasses dominate macrophyte biomass in many estuaries they also dominate primary production. We tested this assumption by developing three carbon budgets to examine the contribution of autotrophic components to the total ecosystem net primary production (TENPP) of Lower Laguna Madre, Texas. The first budget coupled average photosynthetic parameters with average daily irradiance to calculate daily production. The second budget used average photosynthetic parameters and hourly in situ irradiance to estimate productivity. The third budget integrated temperature-adjusted photosynthetic parameters (using Q10=2) and hourly in situ irradiance to estimate productivity. For each budget TENPP was calculated by integrating production from each autotroph based on the producers’ areal distribution within the entire Lower Laguna Madre. All budgets indicated that macroalgae account for 33–42% of TENPP and seagrasses consistently accounted for about 33–38%. The contribution by phytoplankton was consistently about 15–20%, and the contribution from the benthic microalgae varied between 8% and 36% of TENPP, although this may have been underestimated due to our exclusion of the within bed microphytobenthos component. The water column over the seagrass beds was net heterotrophic and consequently was a carbon sink consuming between 5% and 22% of TENPP, TENPP ranged between 5.41×1010 and 2.53×1011 g C yr−1, depending on which budget was used. The simplest, most idealized budget predicted the highest TENPP, while the more realistic budgets predicted lower values. Annual production rates estimated using the third budget forHalodule urightii andThalassia testudinum compare well with field data. Macroalgae and microalgae contribute 50–60% of TENPP, and seagrass may be more important as three-dimensional habitat (i.e., structure) than as a source of organic carbon to the water column in Lower Laguna Madre.  相似文献   

4.
Three quarters of the global human population will live in coastal areas in the coming decades and will continue to develop these areas as population density increases. Anthropogenic stressors from this coastal development may lead to fragmented habitats, altered food webs, changes in sediment characteristics, and loss of near-shore vegetated habitats. Seagrass systems are important vegetated estuarine habitats that are vulnerable to anthropogenic stressors, but provide valuable ecosystem functions. Key to maintaining these habitats that filter water, stabilize sediments, and provide refuge to juvenile animals is an understanding of the impacts of local coastal development. To assess development impacts in seagrass communities, we surveyed 20 seagrass beds in lower Chesapeake Bay, VA. We sampled primary producers, consumers, water quality, and sediment characteristics in seagrass beds, and characterized development along the adjacent shoreline using land cover data. Overall, we could not detect effects of local coastal development on these seagrass communities. Seagrass biomass varied only between sites, and was positively correlated with sediment organic matter. Epiphytic algal biomass and epibiont (epifauna and epiphyte) community composition varied between western and eastern regions of the bay. But, neither eelgrass (Zostera marina) leaf nitrogen (a proxy for integrated nitrogen loading), crustacean grazer biomass, epifaunal predator abundance, nor fish and crab abundance differed significantly among sites or regions. Overall, factors operating on different scales appear to drive primary producers, seagrass-associated faunal communities, and sediment properties in these important submerged vegetated habitats in lower Chesapeake Bay.  相似文献   

5.
We examined the effect of nutrients and grazers on Thalassia testudinum in Jobos Bay, Puerto Rico by fertilizing sediment and manipulating grazer abundances. Bottom-up effects were variable: Added nutrients did not increase seagrass aboveground biomass, but decreased belowground biomass—perhaps as a result of less biomass being allocated to belowground structures in response to greater nutrient supply in porewater. Experimental fencing of 1.5 × 1.5 m plots provided shelter that attracted large aggregations of fish, including seagrass herbivores. Seagrass biomass and shoot density decreased with increasing abundance of herbivorous fish, indicating a significant top-down effect. There were interactions between nutrient supply, provision of shelter, and grazing pressure. Fertilization enhanced seagrass %N; however, %N also increased in unfertilized plots that were fenced, most likely due to uptake of N excreted from the large numbers of fish associated with the fences. Only plots where shelter was provided and fertilizer was applied to sediments exhibited evidence of heavy grazing, reducing both seagrass cover and aboveground biomass. In the unfertilized fenced plots, signs of grazing were fewer despite large abundances of fish and enhanced nutritional quality of seagrass leaves. This suggests the possibility that high nutrient availability in sediments lowered concentrations of chemical defense compounds in the seagrass and that cues other than %N may have been involved in stimulating grazing. This study highlights the complexity of bottom-up and top-down interactions in seagrass systems and the important role of refuge availability in shaping the relative strengths of these controls.  相似文献   

6.
We examined the spatial extent of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) limitation of each of the major benthic primary producer groups in Florida Bay (seagrass, epiphytes, macroalgae, and benthic microalgae) and characterized the shifts in primary producer community composition following nutrient enrichment. We established 24 permanent 0.25-m2 study plots at each of six sites across. Florida Bay and added N and P to the sediments in a factorial design for 18 mo. Tissue nutrient content of the turtlegrassThalassia testudinum revealed a spatial pattern in P limitation, from severe limitation in the eastern bay (N:P>96:1), moderate limitation in two intermediate sites (approximately 63:1), and balanced with N availability in the western bay (approximately 31:1). P addition increasedT. testudinum cover by 50–75% and short-shoot productivity by up to 100%, but only at the severely P-limited sites. At sites with an ambient N:P ratio suggesting moderate P limitation, few seagrass responses to nutrients occurred. Where ambientT. testudinum tissue N:P ratios indicated N and P availability was balanced, seagrass was not affected by nutrient addition but was strongly influenced by disturbance (currents, erosion). Macroalgal and epiphytic and benthic microalgal biomass were variable between sites and treatments. In general, there was no algal overgrowth of the seagrass in enriched conditions, possibly due to the strength of seasonal influences on algal biomass or regulation by grazers., N addition had little effect on any benthic primary producers throughout the bay. The Florida Bay benthic primary producer community was P limited, but P-induced alterations of community structure were not uniform among primary producers or across Florida Bay and did not always agree with expected patterns of nutrient limitation based on stoichiometric predictions from field assays ofT. testudinum tissue, N:P ratios.  相似文献   

7.
The Florida Bay ecosystem has changed substantially in the past decade, and alterations in the seagrass communities have been particularly conspicuous. In 1987 large areas ofThalassia testudinum (turtlegrass) began dying rapidly in western Florida Bay. Although the rate has slowed considerably, die-off continues in many parts of the bay. Since 1991, seagrasses in Florida Bay have been subjected to decreased light availability due to widespread, persistent microalgal blooms and resuspended sediments. In light of these recent impacts, we determined the current status of Florida Bay seagrass communities. During the summer of 1994, seagrass species composition, shoot density, shoot morphometrics, and standing crop were measured at 107 stations. Seagrasses had been quantified at these same stations 10 yr earlier by Zieman et al. (1989).T. testudinum was the most widespread and abundant seagrass species in Florida Bay in both 1984 and 1994, and turtlegrass distribution changed little over the decade. On a baywide basis,T. testudinum density and biomass declined significantly between surveys; mean short-shoot density ofT. testudinum dropped by 22% and standing crop by 28% over the decade.T. testudinum decline was not homogeneous throughout Florida Bay; largest reductions in shoot density and biomass were located principally in the central and western bay. Percent loss ofT. testudinum standing crop in western Florida Bay in 1994 was considerably greater at the stations with the highest levels of standing crop in 1984 (126–215 g dry wt m−2) than at the stations with lower levels of biomass. While turtlegrass distribution remained consistent over time, both the distribution and abundance of two other seagrasses,Halodule wrightii andSyringodium filiforme, declined substantially between 1984 and 1994. Baywide,H. wrightii shoot density and standing crop declined by 92%, andS. filiforme density and standing crop declined by 93% and 88%, respectively, between surveys. Patterns of seagrass loss in Florida Bay between 1984 and 1994 suggest die-off and chronic light reductions were the most likely causes for decline. If die-off and persistent water-column turbidity continue in Florida Bay, the long-term future of seagrasses in the bay is uncertain.  相似文献   

8.
For more than a decade, inexpensive electronic instruments have made continuous underwater light monitoring an integral part of many seagrass studies. Although biofouling, if not controlled, compromises the utility of the record. A year-long assessment of the time course of sensor fouling, in the Laguna Madre of Texas established that light transmitted through the fouling layer after 2 wk of exposure exceeded 90% except for a 6–8 wk period in May and June. On that basis, a 2-wk interval was chosen for routine servicing. Subsequent monitoring proved this choice to be grossly in error. The period of sub-90% transmittance after 2 wk extended to 4–6 mo annually over the next 3 yr. Fouling was strongly correlated with temperature, ambient light, and year. Since an algal bloom of 7-yr duration finally waned during this study, increased ambient light seemed most likely to explain increased fouling later in the study. The explanatory value of light was less than temperature or year in multiple regression, requiring some other explanation of the date effect than change in ambient light. Allelopathic and suspension-feeding depressant effects of the brown tide are offered as the most likely cause of unusually low fouling in the first year. Biofouling was so unpredictable and rapid in this study that at least weekly maintenance would be required to assure reliability of the light monitoring record.  相似文献   

9.
Seasonal patterns of aboveground and belowground biomass, leaf chlorophyll (chl) content, and in situ differences in photosynthetic parameters were examined in the shoal grass Halodule wrightii along an estuarine gradient in the western Gulf of Mexico. Continuous measurements of biomass were collected over a 5-yr period (1989–1994) with respect to several abiotic factors in three estuarine systems that were characterized by significant differences in salinity and ambient dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN; NO2 ?+NO3 ?) regimes that ranged from 5–25‰ (0–80 μM DIN) in the Guadalupe estuary to 35–55‰ (0–9 μM DIN) in the upper Laguna Madre, Photosynthesis versus irradiance (P vs. I) parameters, measured from December 1989 to April 1991, showed no significant differences among the three sites, and there were no significant differences in leaf chlorophyll content and chl a:b ratios among sites over the entire 5-yr period. Saturation irradiance in Halodule wrightii is estimated at 319 μmoles photons m?2 s?1 based on measurements collected at the three sites over a 2-yr period. No strong seasonal variations were observed in total plant biomass, but root:shoot ratios (RSR) showed a clear pattern of maximum RSR values in winter and minimum values in summer. There were no significant differences in RSR among sites, and no consistent correlations could be established between plant parameters and sediment porewater NH4 +, salinity, or temperature. Sediment porewater NH4 + values generally ranged from 50 μM to 400 μM (average 130–150 μM) but could not be correlated with significant differences in sediment composition between the sites. The high productivity of Halodule wrightii under a variety of light, nutrient, and salinity conditions explains its ubiquitous distribution and opportunistic strategy as a colonizing species. However, the persistence of a dense algal bloom in Laguna Madre coincident with low DIN levels (<5 μM) contradicts previously accepted relationships on nutrient stimulation of algal growth, and provides strong evidence that water quality parameters for estuarine seagrasses are decidedly estuarine-specific. Consequently, a knowledge of the long-term history of estuarine systems is critical to habitat managers, who are required to establish minimum water quality criteria for the protection of submerged aquatic vegetation in estuarine systems. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A01BY074 00028  相似文献   

10.
The effects of light reduction on community metabolism and sediment sulfate reduction rates (SRR) were assessed experimentally in a shallow (<2.0 m) seagrass (Thalassia testudinum) meadow along Florida's north-central Gulf coast. Nine experimental plots (1.5 m×1.5 m) were shaded differentially to achieve a 0–90% gradient in light reduction within the seagrass meadow. Gross primary production and net community production (NCP), estimated with in situ benthic chamber incubations, decreased with increasing light reduction. The compensation irradiance for community metabolism, i.e., the shading level at which NCP shifted from net autotrophic to net heterotrophic, was determined to be 52.5% of the incoming irradiance at canopy height in the seagrass bed (308.7 μE m−2 s−1 PAR at noon). Sediment SRR, determined with the use of a35S−SO4 2− radiotracer technique, increased quickly (within 5 d) and markedly with increased shade, i.e., simulated light reduction. SRR increased 50-fold when shading exceeded the light compensation point for the seagrass community, rendering the community net heterotrophic. Five days after restoring ambient light conditions, SRR had decreased sharply for all shading treatments. The observed decrease in NCP, coincident with the increase in the SRR with light reduction, suggests that light reduction has an indirect influence on sediment SRR mediated through its effect on seagrass metabolism.  相似文献   

11.
Grazing by small epifauna on live seagrass leaves was formerly viewed as unimportant in controlling plant biomass and growth, instead researchers focused on the indirect benefits of small invertebrates that crop algal competitors. Recent evidence shows that the emerald nerite Smaragdia viridis preferentially ingests seagrass leaf tissue. In contrast, the button snail Modulus modulus feeds on epiphytes and periphyton coating the leaves. We conducted laboratory microcosm and field experiments to investigate how the different feeding preferences of these seagrass-associated snails affect turtlegrass Thalassia testudinum primary production. Data revealed that after 24 h S. viridis reduced foliar biomass (25%) and chlorophyll (30%) and injured the equivalent of 50% of daily seagrass growth per shoot. Conversely, M. modulus did not affect these variables. Our results emphasize that in subtropical seagrass communities not all small epifauna browse off leaf surfaces and some can have important direct negative impacts on their seagrass host.  相似文献   

12.
Lucinid bivalves dominate the infauna of tropical seagrass sediments. While the effect of seagrass on lucinids has been studied, the reverse effect has largely been ignored. Lucinids can alter porewater chemistry (i.e., increase porewater nutrients by suspension feeding and decrease porewater sulfides by oxygen introduction and bacterial oxidation), which can potentially change seagrass productivity and growth morphology. To observe correlations between porewater chemistry and lucinid presence, a field survey and laboratory microcosm experiment were conducted. Survey sampling sites with lucinids had significantly lower sulfide and higher ammonium concentrations than sampling sites without lucinids. There was no difference in phosphate concentration among sampling sites. Both lucinid species used in the microcosm experiment (Ctena orbiculata andLucinesca nassula) significantly lowered sulfide concentrations in the sediment porewater. Microcosm and field survey results were incorporated into a sulfide budget. In seagrass sediments, lucinids remove 2–16% of the total sulfide produced. Sulfide is a major stressor to both plants and animals in Florida Bay sediments; this removal may be important to maintaining seagrass productivity and health. Oxygen introduction into sediments byC. orbiculata was estimated in a dye experiment.C. orbiculata were added to small tubes containing sieved mud and incubated in a bath of seawater with a Rhodamine WT. Rhodamine WT accumulation in the sediment was measured. A first order estimate showed that oxygen introduction can account for less than 5% ofC. orbiculata sulfide removal.  相似文献   

13.
The Laguna Madre of South Texas is a shallow coastal lagoon whose dominant primary producers shifted from seagrasses to phytoplankton with the onset of the Texas brown tide, which persisted from 1990 through 1997. Acartia tonsa is the dominant component of the mesozooplankton and forms an important link in both the phytoplankton and detritus-based pelagic food webs. Stable carbon isotope ratios of A. tonsa, as well as the two major primary producers: phytoplankton (as particulate organic carbon) and seagrasses, were measured from March 1989 to October 1991. Zooplankton samples were collected at four locations in the Laguna Madre: two in shallow water (c. 1 m) over seagrass beds and two in slightly deeper water (c. 2–3 m) over a muddy bottom in a secondary bay without seagrasses. We found seasonal trends in the isotopic composition of A. tonsa collected within both habitats as well as distinct differences between the average {ie995-1} values of individuals collected in the two regions. Isotopic ratios of animals collected during the summer months were generally 4–8‰ enriched in 13C compared with those collected in the winter, at all stations. A. tonsa collected over seagrass beds were 2–5‰ more enriched in 13C than those collected over muddy bottoms. These observations suggest carbon derived from seagrasses can be an important source of nutrition for these copepods in summer, especially for copepods living over seagrass beds. The effects of the persistent brown tide decreased the contribution of seagrasses as a carbon source for A. tonsa during the summer of 1991. The pathway by which seagrass carbon enters the diet of A. tonsa is unclear, but the two pathways considered most likely are through copepods feeding on microzooplankton that have fed on bacteria nourished on seagrass carbon, or by copepods feeding directly on particles of seagrass detritus.  相似文献   

14.
Vegetation maps of the lower Laguna Madre prepared from surveys conducted in 1965–1967, 1974–1976, and 1988 document a >330 km2 decrease in cover byHalodule wrightii, an increase of almost 190 km2 in other seagrass species, and an increase of 140 km2 in bare bottom. Loss in seagrass cover is confined to deeper parts of the laguna; turbidity caused by maintenance dredging is the suspected cause. The species shifts are consistent with observed reductions in salinity maxima. Although the hydrological alterations and climatic shift responsible for moderating the salinity regime occurred between 1948 and 1965, the biological changes continue. Establishment of patches away from source meadows appears to be the process for displacing species that limits their rate of expansion into suitable habitat in this elongate embayment.  相似文献   

15.
Seagrasses are submerged marine plants that are anchored to the substrate and are therefore limited to assimilating nutrients from the surrounding water column or sediment, or by translocating nutrients from adjacent shoots through the belowground rhizome. As a result, seagrasses have been used as reliable ecosystem indicators of surrounding nutrient conditions. The Chandeleur Islands are a chain of barrier islands in the northern Gulf of Mexico that support the only marine seagrass beds in Louisiana, USA, and are the sole location of the seagrass Thalassia testudinum across nearly 1000 km of the coastline from west Florida to central Texas. Over the past 150 years, the land area of the Chandeleur Islands has decreased by over half, resulting in a decline of seagrass cover. The goals of this study were to characterize the status of a climax seagrass species at the Chandeleur Islands, T. testudinum, in terms of leaf nutrient (nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P]) changes over time, from 1998 to 2015, and to assess potential drivers of leaf nutrient content. Thalassia testudinum leaf nutrients displayed considerable interannual variability in N and P content and molar ratios, which broadly mimicked patterns in annual average dissolved nutrient concentrations in the lower Mississippi River. Hydrological modeling demonstrated the potential for multiple scenarios that would deliver Mississippi River water, and thus nutrients, to T. testudinum at the Chandeleur Islands. Although coastal eutrophication is generally accepted as the proximate cause for seagrass loss globally, there is little evidence that nutrient input from the Mississippi River has driven the dramatic declines observed in seagrasses at the Chandeleur Islands. Rather, seagrass cover along the Chandeleur Islands appears to be strongly influenced by island geomorphological processes. Although variable over time, the often elevated nutrient levels of the climax seagrass species, T. testudinum, which are potentially driven by river-derived nutrient inputs, raises an important consideration of the potential loss of the ecosystem functions and services associated with these declining seagrass meadows.  相似文献   

16.
Organic petrology (incident light microscopy) of Middle Devonian inter-reef laminates and Devonian-Mississippian epicontinental black shales, Williston Basin, Canada, indicates that algal bloom episodes and consequential bacterial activity played a significant role in the accumulation of amorphous, bituminite III-rich organic microfacies. Corpohuminite-like algal akinete cells produced by filamentous algae during algal bloom periods are persistent maceral inclusions within the potential hydrocarbon source rock intervals. These cells (%Ro mean range 0.24-0.90) are regarded as positive indicators of stressful palaeoenvironmental conditions. Unicellular Tasmanites and Leiosphaeridia marine alginite and variably degraded alginite remnants (“ghosts”) within the amorphous kerogen may be products of cell lysis, photo-oxidation and microbial alteration; these processes are characteristic of algal bloom periods. Minute (ca. 1 μm) spheroidal and coccoidal bacteria-like macerals are dispersed throughout the bituminite III network, attesting to the importance of microbial activity within the water column and sediment during and after organic matter accumulation. Dispersed granules, laminations and replacement textures of micrinite-like macerals within bituminite III are interpreted as remnants of microbial alteration rather than a residual product of thermal maturation and hydrocarbon generation.  相似文献   

17.
The US Army Corps of Engineers recently dredged and permanently reopened Packery Channel, historically a natural tidal inlet, to allow water exchange between the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre, TX, USA. The main objective of this study was to characterize estuarine-dependent recruitment and community structure in seagrass habitats adjacent to Packery Channel pre- and post-channel opening. We sampled fish and crustacean abundance using an epibenthic sled in Halodule wrightii seagrass meadows in both control and impact locations over 2 years, 1 year before the opening of Packery Channel (October 2004–May 2005) and 1 year after (July 2005–April 2006). Using the before–after control–impact design, we found significantly fewer nekton post-channel opening. However, we found significantly higher mean densities of newly settled estuarine-dependent species (Sciaenops ocellatus, Micropogonias undulatus, Lagodon rhomboides, Callinectes sapidus, and penaeid shrimp) post-opening. Multivariate analyses showed significant community assemblage changes post-opening with increased contribution of estuarine-dependent species post-opening. Our results show that estuarine-dependent nekton are using Packery Channel as a means of ingress into areas of the upper Laguna Madre’s seagrass meadows that were previously inaccessible, which may lead to higher fisheries productivity for some of these economically and ecologically important fishery species.  相似文献   

18.

Four meadows of turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum Banks ex Konig) in Sarasota Bay, Florida were sampled on a bimonthly basis from June 1992 to July 1993 to determine spatial and temporal variation in short shoot density, biomass, productivity, and epiphyte loads. Concurrent with the seagrass sampling, quarterly water-quality monitoring was undertaken at ≥3 sites in the vicinity of each studied seagrass meadow. Three months after termination of the seagrass sampling effort, a biweekly water-quality monitoring program was instituted at two of the seagrass sampling sites. In addition, a nitrogen loading model was calibrated for the various watersheds influencing the seagrass meadows. Substantial spatial and temporal differences in turtle grass parameters but smaller spatial variation in water quality parameters are indicated by data from both the concurrent quarterly monitoring program and the biweekly monitoring program instituted after termination of the seagrass study. Turtle grass biomass and productivity were negatively correlated with watershed nitrogen loads, while water quality parameters did not clearly reflect differences in watershed nutrient inputs. We suggest that traditional water-quality monitoring programs can fail to detect the onset or continuance of nutrient-induced declines in seagrass health. Consequently, seagrass meadows should be monitored directly as a part of any effort to determine status and/or trends in the health of estuarine environments. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A01BY074 00029

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19.
Seagrasses are sensitive to local environmental conditions such as salinity, the underwater light environment, and nutrient availability. To characterize seagrass coverage and condition, as well as to relate changes in community structure to local environmental and hydrologic conditions, we monitored seagrass communities in the Upper Laguna Madre (ULM), Texas annually from 2011 to 2015. In 2011 and 2012, the lagoon was dominated primarily by Halodule wrightii, with mixed meadows of H. wrightii and Syringodium filiforme located in the northwest of our study area. By 2013, the expansive S. filiforme meadows had disappeared and the species was restricted to the northernmost reaches of the lagoon. The S. filiforme mortality occurred following an extended period of extremely high salinity (salinities 50–70) during a regional drought. Continuous measurements of underwater photosynthetically active radiation and stable carbon isotopic signatures of seagrass blade tissues did not suggest light limitation, and H. wrightii N/P molar ratios near 30:1 were not indicative of nutrient limitation. Based on the absence of strong evidence for light or nutrient limitation, along with the known tolerance of H. wrightii for higher salinities, we conclude that hypersalinity driven by regional drought was likely the major driver behind the observed S. filiforme mortality. With a substantial portion of the global seagrass distribution threatened by drought in the next 50 years, the increased frequency of hypersaline conditions is likely to exacerbate stress in seagrass systems already vulnerable to the effects of rising water temperatures, eutrophication, and sea level rise.  相似文献   

20.
An investigation of seagrass-epiphyte controlling factors was conducted within aThalassia testudinum meadow in Florida Bay from March 2000 to April 2001. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using water column nutrient concentrations, temperature, salinity, and turbidity, and gastropod grazer abundances, seagrass leaf area index, and leaf turnover rate data to explain the variation in total epiphyte standing stock, epiphyte chlorophylla, and epiphyte autotrophic index. Turbidity was positively correlated with total epiphyte standing stock and accounted for the most variation. Observations of adhered sediment onT. testudinum leaves and the combination, of increased total epiphyte standing stocks and low autotrophic indices observed in February and April 2001 suggest that the settling of resuspended sediments following turbidity events is one of the temporal mechanisms for increased epiphyte accumulation. Total epiphyte standing stock was also negatively correlated with the abundance of a robust gastropod grazer community dominated byTurbo castanea, Tegula fasciata, andModulus modulus. Distinct temporal size cohorts ofT. castanea andT. fasciata throughout the study period suggest recruitment in spring and an annual lifespan. Nutrient concentrations can also account for some of the temporal variation in total epiphyte standing stock, epiphyte chlorophylla, and autotrophic index. The low variation ofT. testudinum leaf turnover rates was unable to account for any of the variation in the epiphyte parameters.  相似文献   

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