Selection for a red tide organism: physiological responses to the physical environment

Journal Article · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1981 · Limnol. Oceanogr.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1981.26.2.0310· OSTI ID:6503661

Tyler, M A; Seliger, H H

The dinoflagellate Prorocentrum mariae-lebouriae has specific physiological characteristics that allow it to participate in a subsurface transport from the southern Chesapeak Bay to the northern bay, where it upwells and forms red tides. A particular growth rate dependence both on temperature and salinity restricts its year-round distribution to the high-salinty southern bay. At summer temperatures, increased tolerance to low salinities allows rapid growth in the low-salinity waters of the northern bay. Positive phototaxis is proposed to act in conjunction with downwelling convergence at a frontal region to form the initial subsurface concentration maximum or lens. Repression of positive phototaxis at a salinity interface appears to prevent the subsurface concentrations from crossing the sharp halocline, retaining the lens population in northward-flowing bottom waters. Prorocentrum increases its pigment concentration and retains its photosynthetic capacity at the extremely low light intensities encountered during the 200-km northward transport. In nutrient-poor surface waters in summer, Prorocentrum migrates at night to the higher nutrient pycnocline region. The winter-spring phasing of the streamflows in both northern and southern bays may be used to predict the degree of Prorocentrum blooming in the northern bay in summer.

• Research Organization: Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD
• OSTI ID: 6503661
• Journal Information: Limnol. Oceanogr.; (United States), Journal Name: Limnol. Oceanogr.; (United States) Vol. 26:2; ISSN LIOCA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

520100 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Basic Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
550100* -- Behavioral Biology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ALGAE
ATLANTIC OCEAN
BAYS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHESAPEAKE BAY
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FORECASTING
GROWTH
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MIGRATION
NUTRIENTS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOCHEMICAL REACTIONS
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
PHYSIOLOGY
PIGMENTS
PLANTS
POPULATION DYNAMICS
POPULATIONS
RADIATIONS
SALINITY
SEAS
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
SEAWATER
SURFACE WATERS
SYNTHESIS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TOLERANCE
UPWELLING
VARIATIONS
VISIBLE RADIATION
WATER