Gabriel A. Vargo

Red tides in the Gulf of Mexico: Where, when, and why?

[1] Independent data from the Gulf of Mexico are used to develop and test the hypothesis that the same sequence of physical and ecological events each year allows the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis to become dominant. A phosphorus-rich nutrient supply initiates phytoplankton succession, once deposition events of Saharan iron-rich dust allow Trichodesmium blooms to utilize ubiquitous dissolved nitrogen gas within otherwise nitrogen-poor sea water. They and the co-occurring K. brevis are positioned within the bottom Ekman layers, as a consequence of their similar diel vertical migration patterns on the middle shelf. Upon onshore upwelling of these near-bottom seed populations to CDOM-rich surface waters of coastal regions, light-inhibition of the small red tide of ~1 ug chl l(-1) of ichthytoxic K. brevis is alleviated. Thence, dead fish serve as a supplementary nutrient source, yielding large, self-shaded red tides of ~10 ug chl l(-1). The source of phosphorus is mainly of fossil origin off west Florida, where past nutrient additions from the eutrophied Lake Okeechobee had minimal impact. In contrast, the P-sources are of mainly anthropogenic origin off Texas, since both the nutrient loadings of Mississippi River and the spatial extent of the downstream red tides have increased over the last 100 years. During the past century and particularly within the last decade, previously cryptic Karenia spp. have caused toxic red tides in similar coastal habitats of other western boundary currents off Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, downstream of the Gobi, Simpson, Great Western, and Kalahari Deserts, in a global response to both desertification and eutrophication.

Platforms of the Nicaraguan Rise: Examples of the sensitivity of carbonate sedimentation to excess trophic resources

The Nicaraguan Rise is an active tectonic structure in the western Caribbean. Carbonate accumulation on its platforms has not kept pace with relative Holocene sea-level rise, despite a tropical location remote from terrigenous sedimentation. Trophic resources apparently exceed levels favoring coral-reef development because sponge-algal communities dominate the drowning western platforms, in contrast to mixed coral-algal benthos on Pedro Bank and well- developed coral reefs along the north coast of Jamaica. Concentrations of biotic pigments in sea-surface waters show a corresponding west-east gradient; oceanic waters flowing over the western banks carry nearly twice as much biotic pigment as oceanic waters north of Jamaica. Sources enriching the western Caribbean are terrestrial runoff, upwelling off northern South America, and topographic upwelling over the Nicaraguan Rise. That relatively modest levels of trophic resources can suppress coral-reef development holds important implications for understanding carbonate platform drownings in the geologic record.

A simulation study of the growth of benthic microalgae following the decline of a surface phytoplankton bloom

The West Florida continental shelf is an oligotrophic system for most of the year. An episodic chlorophyll plume has previously been observed in satellite imagery on the northern portion of the shelf during the spring months. The fate of the plume upon its decline in the late spring and early summer is unknown. Decreased chlorophyll levels and sustained nutrient stocks may be explained by sediment/water-column interactions, including the presence of benthic microalgae. A one-dimensional model, consisting of 16 state variables, is constructed to simulate the decline of a surface chlorophyll bloom in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico as measured during the Florida Shelf Lagrangian Experiment (FSLE). Results from a baseline simulation of two FSLE studies suggest that remineralized nutrients from the declining bloom are taken up by heterotrophic bacteria in the water-column and by benthic microalgae in the sediments. Perturbation experiments imply that low light levels, due to increased CDOM, do not have significant effects on the benthic microfloral community at mid-shelf locations.

Effects of a rapidly receding ice edge on the abundance, age structure and feeding of three dominant calanoid copepods in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Abstract Open-water, marginal-ice and in-ice zones were sampled in the Weddell Sea during November and December, 1993 in an effort to examine the influence of the early spring bloom on the diet and population structure of the three biomass dominant copepods: Metridia gerlachei, Calanus propinquus, and Calanoides acutus. The abundance of all three species in the upper 200 m was highest at stations in the open water, but individually, each species displayed a unique trend. M. gerlachei, which showed the least variability, was significantly more abundant in open water than in the marginal-ice zone. The abundance of Calanus propinquus was higher in open water than in the marginal-ice zone or in the ice. Calanoides acutus displayed the highest variability, with significant differences between all three ice-cover zones. Diet analysis revealed no significant differences in the number of food items within each ice-cover zone and diatoms were the most numerous item identified in the guts of all three species. However, M. gerlachei and Calanus propinquus also contained metazoan material, while Calanoides acutus did not. There were dramatic differences in the age composition of the species between the zones. Early copepodite stages of all three species predominated at the ice edge and in open water. Numbers of M. gerlachei adult females were roughly equivalent in all three zones while Calanoides acutus and Calanus propinquus adult females composed a higher fraction of the total population within the ice. These results compare well with life-history data compiled by other authors and reinforce the importance of the ice edge to bloom-dependent Antarctic zooplankton.

Growth Rates and the Salinity Response of an Antarctic Ice Microflora Community

SummaryAn ice microflora community collected from the bottom of seasonal pack-ice off the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica, was grown at salinities which varied from 11.5‰ to 34‰. The response exhibited by the community and by individual species was characterized by an initial lag phase-adaptation period followed by a short period of exponential growth. Doubling rates based on changes in chlorophyll a had a range from 0.05 to 0.23 day-1 during the time required to reach maximum chlorophyll a concentration and a range of 0.04 to 0.42 day-1 during a period of exponential growth. Exponential growth rates of individual species ranged from 0.2 to 1.0 doublings day-1. Growth occurred at all salinities above 11.5‰. Community growth rates increased with increasing salinity, and the growth-salinity response of most species was shifted toward higher salinities suggesting that this Antarctic ice microalgal community was adapted to the ambient salinity regime: 34‰.

On the Accuracy of SeaWiFS Ocean Color Data Products on the West Florida Shelf

ABSTRACT Cannizzaro, J.P.; Hu, C.; Carder, K.L.; Kelble, C.R.; Melo, N.; Johns, E.M.; Vargo, G.A., and Heil, C.A., 2013. On the accuracy of SeaWiFS ocean color data products on the West Florida Shelf. Despite the importance of the West Florida Shelf (WFS) on regional ecology and local economy, systematic shelf-wide assessment of the ocean biology has not been conducted, primarily because of budgetary limitations for routine field campaigns and unknown accuracy of satellite-based data products. Here, using shipboard spectral normalized water-leaving radiance (nLw[λ]) data and chlorophyll-a concentrations (Chl-a) collected regularly during two multiyear field programs spanning >10 years, the accuracies of Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) standard data products were evaluated. The in situ data covered a wide dynamic range, with about one order of magnitude in nLw(490) (0.47 to 4.01 mW cm−2 μm−1 sr−1) and two orders of magnitude in Chl-a (0.07 to 10.6 mg m−3). Near-concurrent in situ and satellite nLw(λ) data showed absolute percent differences (APD) increasing from 7–9% to 10–14% when data with elevated aerosol optical thicknesses at 865 nm (τa865) were included. Most of this uncertainty, however, canceled in the maximal blue-to-green reflectance band ratios traditionally used for estimating Chl-a. SeaWiFS OC4 Chl-a showed a root mean square (RMS) uncertainty of 0.106 for log-transformed data in waters offshore of the 20-m isobath that increased to 0.255 when all data were considered. The increased likelihood for nearshore SeaWiFS Chl-a greater than ∼0.5 mg m−3 to be overestimated was shown to be caused by a variety of factors (colored dissolved organic matter [CDOM], suspended sediments, and bottom reflectance) that varied in both time and space. In the future, more sophisticated algorithms capable of taking these factors into consideration are required to improve remote determinations of Chl-a in nearshore waters of the WFS.

Plankton community composition, production, and respiration in relation to dissolved inorganic carbon on the West Florida Shelf, April 1996

In April 1996 the Florida Shelf Lagrangian Experiment examined dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) dynamics on the West Florida Shelf. DIC concentrations increased over 2 weeks at an average rate of 1 μmol kg−1 d−1 in a patch of the intentionally released tracers sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and helium 3 (3He). Approximately 20% of the increase was due to air-sea exchange with the remaining 80% attributed to plankton respiration [Wanninkhof et al., 1997]. Here we present particulate matter concentrations, phytoplankton production, and community respiration rates from the tracer patch that suggest that heterotrophs dominated the community after the termination of a spring bloom. During the experiment, chlorophyll a and phaeopigment concentrations declined from >1.5 to 200 and particulate organic nitrogerr.chlorophyll a >100, suggests that phytoplankton were a minor component of the plankton biomass. Rates of daily gross primary production estimated by the H2 18O method averaged 69±5 mmol C m−2 d−1 (n = 3) while dark respiration rates, estimated from dark bottle incubations, were approximately - 40±3 mmol C m−2 d−1. Net community production rates (6±6 mmol C m−2 d−1) were much lower than respiration rates. Thus respiration rates nearly balanced phytoplankton production. Light respiration rates were estimated from gross production minus net community production (−51±8 mmol C m−1 d−1) and exceeded dark respiration. Plankton community respiration rates, corrected for autotrophic carbon fixation, were more than sufficient to account for the observed increase of DIC within the tracer patch.

Rare earth element uptake by the marine diatom: Skeletonema costatum

Rare earth distribution coefficients, DT = (moles cm⁻³, cells)/(moles cm⁻³, solution), obtained using seawater (S = 36.4, t = 25°C, pH ∼ 8.2, pCO₂ ∼ 345 μatm) and the marine diatom, Skeletonema costatum, exhibited a strong tendency toward the order Ce > Gd > Yb. Observations of rapid initial uptake, with subsequent gradual uptake over time, are suggestive of initial adsorption onto cell surfaces followed by slow transport to interior cell sites. The average volume concentration factors (DT) obtained in our study are: DTCe = (3.33 ± 0.9) × 10⁵; DTGd = (2.41 ± 0.7) × 10⁵; DTYb = (1.64 ± 0.3) × 10⁵. Distribution coefficient results, expressed as a competition between solution and solid-state complexation terms, indicate that rare earth element complexation, both in solution and on surfaces, strongly increases with atomic number. Relatively small differences in rare earth element distribution coefficients (DT) with atomic number are the result of small differences between large solution and solid-state complexation terms.

Covariation of reactive solutes in the sea

Abstract Ideally covariant reactive solutes are defined as those that pass through oceanic cycling without fractionation. The equation for the distribution of a variable was used to conclude that a pair of such solutes must have a constant concentration ratio in any part of the ocean wherein they covary ideally. A linear relationship between their concentrations is insufficient to demonstrate ideal covariation unless the equation for the relationship also happens to have a zero intercept. The existence of a constant concentration ratio provides a test for ideality since composite profiles of concentration ratios can be compared with the vertical straight line which denotes ideal covariation. The test was applied to pairs of minor reactive solutes that were grouped into two categories: those associated with diatoms ( 226 Ra, Ba, Ge and Si) and reactive metals not specifically associated with diatoms (Zn, Cd, Ni and Cu). In descending order, the covariation ranking is 226 Ra-Ba > Ge-Si > Ni-Cu > Zn-Cd > 226 Ra-Si=Ba-Si. Two of the important conclusions to be drawn from this ranking are: (i) 226 Ra and Ba appear to be the most tightly coupled reactive solutes in the sea, probably because combinations of internal chemical and transport processes effectively counteract boundary effects on the concentration-ratio profile; and (ii) the deep Indo-Pacific shows a highly ideal 226 Ra-Si covariation while the deep North Atlantic is highly non-ideal. Discrepancies in the ideality of 226 Ra-Si covariation and covariation differences among the four diatom-associated solutes were further examined in a culture experiment with a neritic diatom and in box model calculations. This experiment demonstrated the previously unreported capability of a single diatom to extract all four solutes simultaneously. It also demonstrated that a diatom can produce changes in concentration ratios of the four solutes, which nearly duplicate trends between the deep and upper ocean. The box model calculations used element:Si ratios from the culture and from field samples to show the strong possibility that diatoms are important in the removal of 226 Ra and Ba as well as Ge, despite the non-ideal covariation between 226 Ra or Ba and Si in parts of the ocean.