15.
The authors analyzed the data collected in the Ecological Station Jiaozhou Bay from May 1991 to November 1994, including 12
seasonal investigations, to determine the characteristics, dynamic cycles and variation trends of the silicate in the bay.
The results indicated that the rivers around Jiaozhou Bay provided abundant supply of silicate to the bay. The silicate concentration
there depended on river flow variation. The horizontal variation of silicate concentration on the transect showed that the
silicate concentration decreased with distance from shorelines. The vertical variation of it showed that silicate sank and
deposited on the sea bottom by phytoplankton uptake and death, and zooplankton excretion. In this way, silicon would endlessly
be transferred from terrestrial sources to the sea bottom. The silicon took up by phytoplankton and by other biogeochemical
processes led to insufficient silicon supply for phytoplankton growth. In this paper, a 2D dynamic model of river flow versus
silicate concentration was established by which silicate concentrations of 0.028–0.062 μmol/L in seawater was yielded by inputting
certain seasonal unit river flows (m
3/s), or in other words, the silicate supply rate; and when the unit river flow was set to zero, meaning no river input, the
silicate concentrations were between 0.05–0.69 μmol/L in the bay. In terms of the silicate supply rate, Jiaozhou Bay was divided
into three parts. The division shows a given river flow could generate several different silicon levels in corresponding regions,
so as to the silicon-limitation levels to the phytoplankton in these regions. Another dynamic model of river flow versus primary
production was set up by which the phytoplankton primary production of 5.21–15.55 (mgC/m
2·d)/(m
3/s) were obtained in our case at unit river flow values via silicate concentration or primary production conversion rate.
Similarly, the values of primary production of 121.98–195.33 (mgC/m
2·d) were achieved at zero unit river flow condition. A primary production conversion rate reflects the sensitivity to silicon
depletion so as to different phytoplankton primary production and silicon requirements by different phytoplankton assemblages
in different marine areas. In addition, the authors differentiated two equations (Eqs. 1 and 2) in the models to obtain the
river flow variation that determines the silicate concentration variation, and in turn, the variation of primary production.
These results proved further that nutrient silicon is a limiting factor for phytoplankton growth.
This study was funded by NSFC (No. 40036010), and the Director's Fund of the Beihai Sea Monitoring Center, the State Oceanic
Administration.
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