Phytoplankton in Coastal Waters and Global Climate Change?

Human disturbance of coastal ecosystems is intense and can mask ecological responses to global climate change. This is the major conclusion of a large effort by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist James E. Cloern and University of California-Davis scientist Alan D. Jassby, who analyzed phytoplankton data from 154 of the world’s coastal water bodies. Phytoplankton (suspended, microscopic algae) are sensitive indicators of long-term climate variability in the open ocean, but apparently not in the nearshore coastal zone where human landscape transformations, fishing, aquaculture, river damming and diversions, introduced species, and contaminants are the dominant causes of biological change. Cloern and Jassby published a recent paper in Ecology Letters to document their analyses of phytoplankton variability, measured as chlorophyll concentration, from coastal sites around the world. Their analyses revealed a wide range of seasonal patterns, with large variability across and within coastal water bodies. Most of the observed variability was attributed to human-induced and natural changes to the local environment of each coastal water body that were unrelated to broad-scale changes in climate.

Knowing how phytoplankton populations respond to environmental stresses is important to scientists and managers because phytoplankton:

• form the base of food webs that support commercial fisheries,
• exert a large influence on the variability of atmospheric carbon dioxide,
• play key roles in the cycling of nutrients and contaminants, and
• are key indicators and transformers of water quality.

References

Cloern, J.E., and Jassby, A.D., 2008, Complex seasonal patterns of primary producers at the land-sea interface: Ecology Letters, v. 11, no. 12, p. 1,294-1,303, doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01244.x.

USGS Information on Estuaries

• Water Quality of San Francisco Bay
• Plankton Dynamics in Tidal Estuaries
• Access USGS - San Francisco Bay and Delta 
• Varied Human Influences on Estuaries -- San Francisco Bay, California
• USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities
• USGS Gulf of Mexico Integrated Science
• USGS: Science Topics: Estuaries

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