Hostname: page-component-6d856f89d9-4thr5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T07:53:40.972Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seasonal Changes in Epipelic Diatoms Along an Intertidal Shore, Berrow Flats, Somerset

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Deborah R. Oppenheim
Deborah R. Oppenheim
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Portsmouth Polytechnic, King Henry I Street, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2DY
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Seasonal changes in the assemblage structure of dominant epipelic diatoms were studied along a transect crossing a salt marsh, sandflat, and mudflat of an estuarine intertidal shore at Berrow Flats, Somerset, UK. Seasonal changes in cell numbers displayed different patterns in the salt marsh and sandflat/mudflat. At salt marsh sites highest numbers of individuals were recorded in summer followed by a smaller autumn growth, while in the sandflat lower numbers showed no seasonal pattern. Repeated annual patterns in the succession of taxa were not observed as environmental conditions changed at the study site with time. Measurements of salinity, pH, interstitial water content, air and soil temperature were taken together with the diatom samples. A canonical correspondence analysis was employed to relate seasonal changes in assemblage structure to measured environmental variables. Total percentage variation in the first four axes of the species/site-environmental biplots ranged between 54 and 66°. In winter, sites and species separated most significantly along gradients of salinity and levels of organic matter. In spring and autumn, interstitial water content became a more significant environmental variable. By summer steep gradients in pH, levels of organic matter, and hypersaline conditions separated sites and assemblages into more discrete groups when compared to the more even spread of points in the other seasons. The results indicate that different combinations of environmental variables influence diatom assemblage structure seasonally.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , August 1991 , pp. 579 - 596
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Admiraal, W., 1980. Experiments on the ecology of benthic diatoms in the Eems-Dollard estuary. Biologish Onderzoek Eems-Dollard Estuarium Publicaties en Verslagen no. 5, 125 pp.Google Scholar
Admiraal, W., Peletier, H. & Zomer, H., 1982. Observations and experiments on the population dynamics of epipelic diatoms from an estuarine mudflat. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 14, 471–487.Google Scholar
Aleem, A.A., 1950. The diatom community inhabiting the mudflats at Whitstable. New Phytologist, 49, 174–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amspoker, M.C., 1977. The distribution of intertidal epipsammic diatoms on Scripps Beach, La Jolla, California, USA. Botanica Marina, 20, 227–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avery, B.W. & Bascombe, C.L. (ed.), 1974. Soil Survey Laboratory Methods. Harpenden. Technical Monograph no. 6.Google Scholar
Cadee, G.C. & Hegeman, J. 1974. Primary production of the benthic microflora living on tidal flats in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 8, 260–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, N., 1932. A comparative study of the algal flora of two salt marshes, Part I. Journal of Ecology, 20, 341–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, N., 1933a. A comparative study of the algal flora of two salt marshes, Part II. Journal of Ecology, 21, 128–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, N., 1933b. A comparative study of the algal flora of two salt marshes, Part HI. Journal of Ecology, 21, 385–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castenholz, R.W 1964. The effect of daylength and light intensity on growth of littoral marine diatoms in culture. Physiologia Plantarum 17, 951–963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dijkema, K.S., 1975. Verennend onderzoek naar de invloed van abiotische faktoren op benthische diatomeeën in de oostelije Waddenzee. Publications and Reports of the Eems-Dollard Project 1974–1975, 22 pp.Google Scholar
Fenchel, T. & Staarup, B.J., 1971. Vertical distribution of photosynthetic pigments and the penetration of light in marine sediments. Oikos, 22, 172–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gow, T.A.K., Curtis, D.J. & McLean, K.O., 1984. Studies on the benthic epilithic diatoms of the Clyde Estuary (Scotland). The Eighth Symposium on Living and Fossil Diatoms, Paris. Unpublished abstracts, p. 85.Google Scholar
Imberger, J., Bernman, T., Christian, R.R., Sherr, E.B., Whitney, D.E., Pomeroy, L.R., Wiegert, R.G. & Wiebe, W.J., 1983. The influence of water motion on the distribution and transport of materials in a salt marsh estuary. Limnology and Oceanography, 28, 201–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laws, R.A., 1988. Diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) from surface sediments in the San Francisco Bay estuary California, USA. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 45, 133–254.Google Scholar
Matheke, G.E.M. & Horner, R., 1974. Primary productivity of the benthic microalgae in the Chukchi Sea near Barrow, Alaska. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 31, 1779–1786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppenheim, D.R., 1985. The Ecology and Taxonomy of the Epipelic Diatoms of Berrow, Somerset (UK). PhD thesis, Department of Botany, Bristol University.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, D.R., 1987. Frequency distribution studies of epipelic diatoms along an intertidal shore. Helgolander Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, 41, 139–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppenheim, D.R., 1988. The distribution of epipelic diatoms along an intertidal shore in relation to principal physical gradients. Botanica Marina, 31, 65–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pamatmat, M.M., 1968. Ecology and metabolism of a benthic community on an intertidal sandflat. Internationale Revue der Gesamten Hydrobiologie, 53, 211–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomeroy, L.R., 1959. Algal productivity in salt marshes of Georgia. Limnology and Oceanography, 4, 386–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riaux, C., 1983. Structure d'un peuplement estuarien de diatomees epipeliques du Nord-Finistère. Oceanologica Acta, 6, 173–183.Google Scholar
Rincé, Y., 1979. Cycle saisonnier des peuplements phytoplanctoniques et microphytobenthiques des claires ostréicoles de la Baie de Bourgneuf. Revue Algologique, 14, 297–313.Google Scholar
Round, F.E., 1960. The diatom flora of a salt marsh on the River Dee. New Phytologist, 59, 332–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steele, J.H. & Baird, I.E. 1968. Production ecology of a sandy beach. Limnology and Oceanography, 13, 14–25.Google Scholar
Snoeijs, P.J.M., 1989. Ecological effects of cooling water discharge on hydrolittoral epilithic diatom communities in the northern Baltic Sea. Diatom Research, 4, 373–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, M.J. & Moncreiff, C.A., 1988. Primary production of edaphic algal communities in a Mississippi salt marsh. Journal ofPhycology, 24, 49–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundbäck, K., 1983. Microphytobenthos on Sand in Shallow Brackish Water, Öresund, Sweden. PhD thesis, University of Lund, Sweden.Google Scholar
Ter Braak, C.J.F., 1986. Canonical correspondence analysis: a new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology, 65, 1167–1179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ter Braak, C.J.F., 1987. Canoco: A Fortran Program For Canonical Community Ordination By Correspondence Analysis, Principal Components Analysis And Redundancy Analysis. TNO Institute of Applied Computer Science, Wageningen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Ter Braak, C.J.F. & Barendregt, L.G., 1986. Weighted averaging of species indicator values: its efficiency in environmental calibration. Mathematical Biosciences, 78, 57–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ter Braak, C.J.F. & Prentice, I.C., 1988. A theory of gradient analysis. Advances in Ecological Research, 18, 271–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiting, M.C., 1983. Distributional Patterns and Taxonomic Structure of Diatom Assemblages in Netarts Bay, Oregon. PhD thesis, Oregon State University.Google Scholar
Whiting, M.C. & Mclntire, C.D., 1985. An investigation of distributional patterns in the diatom flora of Netarts Bay, Oregon by correspondence analysis. Journal of Phycology, 21, 655–661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilderman, C.C., 1987. Patterns of distribution of diatom assemblages along environmental gradients in the Severn River estuary, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. Journal of Phycology, 23, 209–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, J., 1922. A Spitzbergen salt marsh. Journal of Ecology, 10, 109–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar