title: Planktonic community structure during a harmful bloom of Phaeocystis globosa in a subtropical bay, with special reference to the ciliate assemblages.
abstract: Planktonic community structure was investigated during outbreak of harmful Phaeocystis globosa bloom in a subtropical bay, the Maowei Sea, South China Sea. The phytoplankton assemblage was numerically dominated by colonial P. globosa, with its abundance ranging from 1.23 × 10(8) to 11.12 × 10(8) cells m(-3) and contributing nearly 90 % to the total abundance. Totally 66 mesozooplankton (>169 µm) and 19 ciliates species were recorded, with the densities ranged from 169 to 1633 ind m(-3) and 74 to 1118 cells L(-1), respectively. The dominant species for mesozooplankton were Copepoda (larvae), Bestiola sinicus, B. amoyensis, Macrura (larvae) and Acartia spinicauda, respectively. The ciliate assemblage was numerically dominated by Codonella rapa, Strombidium globosaneum and Mesodinium rubrum. During the bloom, P. globosa seemed to be negatively affected by the nutrient phosphate significantly (p < 0.05). However, no correlation between P. globosa and ciliate assemblage was detected, but P. globosa was negatively correlated with total biomass of mesozooplankton and abundance of B. sinicus (p < 0.05), suggesting that P. globosa was uncoupled from the grazing by both ciliates and mesozooplankton when appearing as colonies form. On the other hand, both positive and negative correlations among the dominant groups of mesozooplankton and ciliates were observed (p < 0.05) which possibly indicated that the predation of mesozooplankton upon ciliates might be strengthened during the Phaeocystis bloom and the complex effect also varied from species to species.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation & Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, Guangzhou, 510300, China.
authors.forename: Hua-Xue
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation & Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, Guangzhou, 510300, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Hui
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation & Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, Guangzhou, 510300, China.
authors.forename: Shan-Nan
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation & Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, Guangzhou, 510300, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China. pshen@scsio.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Ping-Ping
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D061006:Bays / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D005068:Eutrophication; D020387:Food Chain; D058087:Haptophyta / Q000502:physiology*; D010933:Plankton / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Ciliates; Harmful algal bloom; Mesozooplankton; Phaeocystis globosa