Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-19T05:33:17.042Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Sea Water, The Natural Medium of Phytoplankton I. General Features

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

R. Johnston
Affiliation:
Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen

Extract

Preliminary culture assays were made using marine algae to elucidate the ‘quality’ of sea waters from the North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean for phytoplankton growth. Assays with (a) bacteria-free Skeletonema costatum, (b) unialgal Skeletonema and Peridinium trochoideum and (c) mixed phytoplankton organisms indicated change of quality according to location, depth and season. Assay results correlated best with zooplankton indicator quality and to a lesser extent with phytoplankton abundance. Assay results were also compared with the distributions of temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, U.V. fluorescence, phytoplankton dominants, zooplankton dominants and abundance. Assessment of sea-water quality was biased for the assay organism used. Factors which altered sea-water quality were added thiamine and B12 (40% improved), IAA (25% improved) and EDTA (almost invariable manyfold improvement). Destructive chemical treatments removed almost completely any good qualities for growth of Skeletonema but seldom for that of Peridinium.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1963

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

Bentley, J. A., 1958. Role of plant hormones in algal metabolism and ecology. Nature, Land., Vol. 181, pp. 14991502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craig, R. E., 1954. Defined coastal influence. Ann. biol., Copenhague, Vol. 10, pp. 86–9.Google Scholar
Droop, M. R., 1955. A pelagic marine diatom requiring cobalamin. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 34, pp. 229–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Droop, M. R., 1961. Some chemical considerations in the design of synthetic culture media for marine algae. Botanica marina, Vol. 2, pp. 231–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duursma, E. K., 1961. Dissolved organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in the sea. Netherlands J. Sea Res., Vol. 1, parts 1, 2, pp. 1148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, J. H., 1961. The survival of larval fish in the northern North Sea according to the quality of the sea water. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 41, pp. 305–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glover, R. S., 1953. The Hardy Plankton Indicator and Sampler: A description of the various models in use. Bull. Mar. Ecol., Vol. 4, pp. 720.Google Scholar
Harvey, H. W., 1948. The estimation of phosphate and of total phosphorus in sea waters. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 27, pp. 337–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucas, C. E., 1961. Interrelationships between aquatic organisms mediated by external metabolites. Amer. Ass. Advanc. Sci., Oceanography, (M.Sears ed.), pp. 499517.Google Scholar
Nordli, E., 1957. Experimental studies on the ecology of Ceratia. Oikos, Vol. 8, pp. 200–65.Google Scholar
Provasoli, L., McLaughlin, J. J. A. & Droop, M. R., 1957. The development of artificial media for marine algae. Arch. Mikrobiol., Bd. 25, pp. 392428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, F. S., 1939. On the seasonal abundance of young fish 6. The year 1938. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 23, pp. 381–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar