Nathalie Gypens

Cost assessment and ecological effectiveness of nutrient reduction options for mitigating Phaeocystis colony blooms in the Southern North Sea: An integrated modeling approach

Nutrient reduction measures have been already taken by wealthier countries to decrease nutrient loads to coastal waters, in most cases however, prior to having properly assessed their ecological effectiveness and their economic costs. In this paper we describe an original integrated impact assessment methodology to estimate the direct cost and the ecological performance of realistic nutrient reduction options to be applied in the Southern North Sea watershed to decrease eutrophication, visible as Phaeocystis blooms and foam deposits on the beaches. The mathematical tool couples the idealized biogeochemical GIS-based model of the river system (SENEQUE-RIVERSTRAHLER) implemented in the Eastern Channel/Southern North Sea watershed to the biogeochemical MIRO model describing Phaeocystis blooms in the marine domain. Model simulations explore how nutrient reduction options regarding diffuse and/or point sources in the watershed would affect the Phaeocystis colony spreading in the coastal area. The reference and prospective simulations are performed for the year 2000 characterized by mean meteorological conditions, and nutrient reduction scenarios include and compare upgrading of wastewater treatment plants and changes in agricultural practices including an idealized shift towards organic farming. A direct cost assessment is performed for each realistic nutrient reduction scenario. Further the reduction obtained for Phaeocystis blooms is assessed by comparison with ecological indicators (bloom magnitude and duration) and the cost for reducing foam events on the beaches is estimated. Uncertainty brought by the added effect of meteorological conditions (rainfall) on coastal eutrophication is discussed. It is concluded that the reduction obtained by implementing realistic environmental measures on the short-term is costly and insufficient to restore well-balanced nutrient conditions in the coastal area while the replacement of conventional agriculture by organic farming might be an option to consider in the nearby future.

Massive marine methane emissions from near-shore shallow coastal areas.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas contributing to climate warming. The open ocean is a minor source of methane to the atmosphere. We report intense methane emissions from the near-shore southern region of the North Sea characterized by the presence of extensive areas with gassy sediments. The average flux intensities (~130 μmol m−2 d−1) are one order of magnitude higher than values characteristic of continental shelves (~30 μmol m−2 d−1) and three orders of magnitude higher than values characteristic of the open ocean (~0.4 μmol m−2 d−1). The high methane concentrations (up to 1,128 nmol L−1) that sustain these fluxes are related to the shallow and well-mixed water column that allows an efficient transfer of methane from the seafloor to surface waters. This differs from deeper and stratified seep areas where there is a large decrease of methane between bottom and surface by microbial oxidation or physical transport. Shallow well-mixed continental shelves represent about 33% of the total continental shelf area, so that marine coastal methane emissions are probably under-estimated. Near-shore and shallow seep areas are hot spots of methane emission, and our data also suggest that emissions could increase in response to warming of surface waters.

The Dimethylsulfide Cycle in the Eutrophied Southern North Sea: A Model Study Integrating Phytoplankton and Bacterial Processes

We developed a module describing the dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethylsulfide (DMS) dynamics, including biological transformations by phytoplankton and bacteria, and physico-chemical processes (including DMS air-sea exchange). This module was integrated in the MIRO ecological model and applied in a 0D frame in the Southern North Sea (SNS). The DMS(P) module is built on parameterizations derived from available knowledge on DMS(P) sources, transformations and sinks, and provides an explicit representation of bacterial activity in contrast to most of existing models that only include phytoplankton process (and abiotic transformations). The model is tested in a highly productive coastal ecosystem (the Belgian coastal zone, BCZ) dominated by diatoms and the Haptophyceae Phaeocystis, respectively low and high DMSP producers. On an annual basis, the particulate DMSP (DMSPp) production simulated in 1989 is mainly related to Phaeocystis colonies (78%) rather than diatoms (13%) and nanoflagellates (9%). Accordingly, sensitivity analysis shows that the model responds more to changes in the sulfur:carbon (S:C) quota and lyase yield of Phaeocystis. DMS originates equally from phytoplankton and bacterial DMSP-lyase activity and only 3% of the DMS is emitted to the atmosphere. Model analysis demonstrates the sensitivity of DMS emission towards the atmosphere to the description and parameterization of biological processes emphasizing the need of adequately representing in models both phytoplankton and bacterial processes affecting DMS(P) dynamics. This is particularly important in eutrophied coastal environments such as the SNS dominated by high non-diatom blooms and where empirical models developed from data-sets biased towards open ocean conditions do not satisfactorily predict the timing and amplitude of the DMS seasonal cycle. In order to predict future feedbacks of DMS emissions on climate, it is needed to account for hotspots of DMS emissions from coastal environments that, if eutrophied, are dominated not only by diatoms.

Increase in dimethylsulfide (DMS) emissions due to eutrophication of coastal waters offsets their reduction due to ocean acidification

Available information from manipulative experiments suggested that the emission of dimethylsulfide (DMS) would decrease in response to the accumulation of anthropogenic CO2 in the ocean (ocean acidification). However, in coastal environments, the carbonate chemistry of surface waters was also strongly modified by eutrophication and related changes in biological activity (increased primary production and change in phytoplankton dominance) during the last 50 years. Here, we tested the hypothesis that DMS emissions in marine coastal environments also strongly responded to eutrophication in addition to ocean acidification at decadal timescales. We used the R-MIRO-BIOGAS model in the eutrophied Southern Bight of the North Sea characterized by intense blooms of Phaeocystis that are high producers of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), the precursor of DMS. We showed that, for the period from 1951 to 2007, eutrophication actually led to an increase of DMS emissions much stronger than the response of DMS emissions to ocean acidification.

Modeling Plankton Mixotrophy: A Mechanistic Model Consistent with the Shuter-Type Biochemical Approach

Mixotrophy, i.e., the ability to combine phototrophy and phagotrophy in one organism, is now recognized to be widespread among photic-zone protists and to potentially modify the structure and functioning of planktonic ecosystems. However, few biogeochemical/ecological models explicitly include this mode of nutrition, owing to the large diversity of observed mixotrophic types, the few data allowing the parameterization of physiological processes, and the need to make the addition of mixotrophy into existing ecosystem models as simple as possible. We here propose and discuss a flexible model that depicts the main observed behaviors of mixotrophy in microplankton. A first model version describes constitutive mixotrophy (the organism photosynthesizes by use of its own chloroplasts). This model version offers two possible configurations, allowing the description of constitutive mixotrophs (CMs) that favor either phototrophy or heterotrophy. A second version describes non-constitutive mixotrophy (the organism performs phototrophy by use of chloroplasts acquired from its prey). The model variants were described so as to be consistent with a plankton conceptualization in which the biomass is divided into separate components on the basis of their biochemical function (Shuter-approach; Shuter, 1979). The two model variants of mixotrophy can easily be implemented in ecological models that adopt the Shuter-approach, such as the MIRO model (Lancelot et al., 2005), and address the challenges associated with modelling mixotrophy.

Annual cycle of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) related to phytoplankton succession in the Southern North Sea

The influence of abiotic and biotic variables on the concentration of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), were investigated during an annual cycle in 2016 in the Belgian Coastal Zone (BCZ, North Sea). We reported strong seasonal variations in the concentration of these compounds linked to the phytoplankton succession with high DMS(P,O) producers (mainly Phaeocystis globosa) occurring in spring and low DMS(P,O) producers (various diatoms species) occurring in early spring and autumn. Spatial gradients of DMS and DMSP were related to those of phytoplankton biomass itself related to the inputs of nutrients from the Scheldt estuary. However, the use of a relationship with Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration is not sufficient to predict DMSP. Accounting for the phytoplankton composition, two different DMSP versus Chl-a correlations could be established, one for diatoms and another one for Phaeocystis colonies. We also reported high nearshore DMSO concentrations uncoupled to Chl-a and DMSP concentrations but linked to high suspended particulate matter (SPM) presumably coming from the Scheldt estuary as indicated by the positive relationship between annual average SPM and salinity.