Carbon-to-chlorophyll ratio and carbon content of phytoplankton community at the surface in coastal waters adjacent to the Zhujiang River Estuary during summer

Xiaoyong Yu; Jie Xu; Aimin Long; Ruihuan Li; Zhen Shi; Qian P Li

doi:10.1007/s13131-020-1556-6

Volume 39 Issue 2

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Xiaoyong Yu, Jie Xu, Aimin Long, Ruihuan Li, Zhen Shi, Qian P Li. Carbon-to-chlorophyll ratio and carbon content of phytoplankton community at the surface in coastal waters adjacent to the Zhujiang River Estuary during summer[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(2): 123-131. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1556-6

Citation:

Xiaoyong Yu, Jie Xu, Aimin Long, Ruihuan Li, Zhen Shi, Qian P Li. Carbon-to-chlorophyll ratio and carbon content of phytoplankton community at the surface in coastal waters adjacent to the Zhujiang River Estuary during summer[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(2): 123-131. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1556-6

Citation:

Xiaoyong Yu, Jie Xu, Aimin Long, Ruihuan Li, Zhen Shi, Qian P Li. Carbon-to-chlorophyll ratio and carbon content of phytoplankton community at the surface in coastal waters adjacent to the Zhujiang River Estuary during summer[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(2): 123-131. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1556-6

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Carbon-to-chlorophyll ratio and carbon content of phytoplankton community at the surface in coastal waters adjacent to the Zhujiang River Estuary during summer

doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1556-6

Xiaoyong Yu^{1, 2},
Jie Xu^{1, 2
,
,},
Aimin Long^{1, 2},
Ruihuan Li¹,
Zhen Shi¹,
Qian P Li^{1, 2}

1.
State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
2.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Funds: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41476137; the project of Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology under contract No. QNLM2016ORP0305.

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail: xujie@scsio.ac.cn
Received Date: 2018-04-11
Accepted Date: 2018-05-18

Available Online: 2020-04-21

Publish Date: 2020-02-25

Abstract

Abstract

Chlorophyll a (Chl a), particulate organic carbon (POC) and biogenic silica (BSi) were determined in coastal waters adjacent to the Zhujiang (Pearl) River Estuary (ZRE) during summer, in order to examine the C:Chl a ratio of phytoplankton and phytoplankton carbon in the plume-impacted coastal waters during summer, as well as to assess the relative contribution of diatoms to the phytoplankton biomass, by the regression between Chl a, POC and BSi. Our results showed that the C:Chl a ratio (g/g) of phytoplankton was high (up to 142), likely due to high light intensity and nutrient limitation. The river plume input stimulated phytoplankton growth, especially diatoms, resulting in higher relative contribution of phytoplankton carbon (55%) and diatoms (34%) to POC in the plume-impacted region than those (33% and 13%) in high salinity area, respectively. Phytoplankton carbon (up to 538 μg/L) in the plume-impacted region was much higher than that (<166 μg/L) in high salinity area. Our findings were helpful to improve the biogeochemical model in coastal waters adjacent to the ZRE.
- chlorophyll a,
- particulate organic carbon,
- biogenic silica,
- phytoplankton carbon,
- diatoms

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References(28)

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