Phytoplankton response to N-rich well amelioration brines: A mesocosm study from the southeastern Mediterranean Sea

O. Raveh; Dror L. Angel; P. Astrahan; Natalia Belkin; Edo Bar-Zeev; Eyal Rahav

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.06.067

Phytoplankton response to N-rich well amelioration brines: A mesocosm study from the southeastern Mediterranean Sea

O. Raveh, Dror L. Angel, P. Astrahan, Natalia Belkin, Edo Bar-Zeev, Eyal Rahav

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Human-induced eutrophication of coastal water may be a major threat to aquatic life. Here, we investigated the effects of N-rich well amelioration brines (WAB) on coastal phytoplankton population's habitat in the surface oligotrophic waters of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea (SEM). To this end, we added WAB (2 concentrations) to mesocosms (1-m³ bags) to surface SEM water during summer and winter, where changes in phytoplankton biomass, activity and diversity was monitored daily for 8 days. Our results demonstrate that WAB addition triggered a phytoplankton bloom, resulting in elevated algal biomass (maximal +780%), increased primary production rates (maximal +675%) and a decrease in eukaryotic algal α-diversity (ca. −20%). Among the species that bloomed following WAB amendments, we found the potentially toxic dinoflagellate Karlodinium venificum. This study adds valuable perspective to the effect of nutrients discharged into nutrient limited SEM coastal waters, and in particular of N-derived WAB.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	355-365
Number of pages	11
Journal	Marine Pollution Bulletin
Volume	146
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.06.067
State	Published - Sep 2019
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Funding

We thank the research assistants of the Marine Chemistry Department at IOLR for the nutrient analyses. We greatly acknowledge Dar Golomb for his help in constructing Fig. 1 and to two anonymous reviewers that went over the initial submission and greatly improved the manuscript. This work was supported by grants awarded by the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources (grant number 3-11519) and by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (grant number 145–1–2). We would like to express our gratitude to the Sir Maurice and Lady Irene Hatter Scholarship and the MERCI scholarship awarded to OR. This work is in partial fulfillment of the M.Sc. thesis of Ofrat Raveh (University of Haifa). We thank the research assistants of the Marine Chemistry Department at IOLR for the nutrient analyses. We greatly acknowledge Dar Golomb for his help in constructing Fig. 1 and to two anonymous reviewers that went over the initial submission and greatly improved the manuscript. This work was supported by grants awarded by the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources (grant number 3-11519) and by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (grant number 145–1–2). We would like to express our gratitude to the Sir Maurice and Lady Irene Hatter Scholarship and the MERCI scholarship awarded to OR. This work is in partial fulfillment of the M.Sc. thesis of Ofrat Raveh (University of Haifa).

Funders	Funder number
Ministry of Environmental Protection	145–1–2
Ministry of Environmental Protection
Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources	3-11519

Keywords

Eutrophication
Nitrate
Phytoplankton
Primary production
Southeastern Mediterranean Sea
Well amelioration brines

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.06.067

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abstract = "Human-induced eutrophication of coastal water may be a major threat to aquatic life. Here, we investigated the effects of N-rich well amelioration brines (WAB) on coastal phytoplankton population's habitat in the surface oligotrophic waters of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea (SEM). To this end, we added WAB (2 concentrations) to mesocosms (1-m3 bags) to surface SEM water during summer and winter, where changes in phytoplankton biomass, activity and diversity was monitored daily for 8 days. Our results demonstrate that WAB addition triggered a phytoplankton bloom, resulting in elevated algal biomass (maximal +780%), increased primary production rates (maximal +675%) and a decrease in eukaryotic algal α-diversity (ca. −20%). Among the species that bloomed following WAB amendments, we found the potentially toxic dinoflagellate Karlodinium venificum. This study adds valuable perspective to the effect of nutrients discharged into nutrient limited SEM coastal waters, and in particular of N-derived WAB.",

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Phytoplankton response to N-rich well amelioration brines: A mesocosm study from the southeastern Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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