Page 17 - IJMS 878-Vol.3 No.41

International Journal of Marine Science 2013, Vol.3, No.41, 333-343
http://ijms.sophiapublisher.com
343
Cyanophyceae) into the water column following the
mixing event. Diatoms that appeared in the impact
mesocosm with 30 min of gyttja mixing were
Amphora, Craticula, Fallacia, Fragilaria and
Melosira, the only one of these to remain in the water
column throughout the 5 days of observation. Most,
if not all of these taxa, were benthic microalgae
(Potapova and Charles, 2003). With the exception of
Melosira, their presence in the water column was
short-lived (<1 day), presumably due to cell sinking.
Large cells (≥ 100 μm) tend to fall rapidly out of the
water column and require water motion or turbulence
to remain suspended (Kiorboe, 1993). Low
orthophosphate levels and a lack of vertical mixing
may explain why there was no stimulation of diatom
growth in the water column, despite high
concentrations of both dissolved nitrogen and silicate
in the impacted mesocosm (N:Si ratios >1).
Phytoplankton are known to respond to sediment
disturbance with changes in biomass, assemblage
structure and taxonomic diversity (Jacobsen and
Simonsen, 1993; Floder and Sommer, 1999;
Hillebrand and Sommer, 2000a; Floder and Burns,
2004). This study found that diversity of
phytoplankton was higher in disturbed mesocosms
than in surrounding water. This was not unexpected
given that intermediate levels of disturbance generally
lead to elevated species diversity (Connell, 1978).
With the temporary influx of benthic algae and the
growth of primarily cyanophytes, the assemblage
structure of phytoplankton changed markedly over the
5-day study period. Similar changes in phytoplankton
assemblage structure, following nutrient increases,
have been observed by other researchers (Vanni, 1987;
Chang and Rossmann, 1988; Burford and Pearson,
1998; Vuorio et al., 2005).
Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the financial support of this work by Research
High Degree, The University of Newcastle, Australia. Thanks to Anna
Redden who assisted with correcting the manuscript. Also thanks to Andrew
Sampaklis who provided the nutrient data for this research.
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