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Fishery Bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service V.55

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Fishery Bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service V.55 CHAPTER V PLANT AND ANIMAL COMMUNITIES Blank page retained for pagination PHYTOPLANKTON OF THE GULF OF MEXICO By CHARLES C. DAVIS, Western Reserve University As late as 1944 Dr. B. F. Osorio Tafall, writing some of them planktonic. Conger (1926-27) concerning the interesting distribution of Bid­ found that the diatom flora of the Dry Tortugas dulphia sinensis Greville, found it necessary to was strongly local in character and that it had speak of "La carenzia absoluta de estudios sis­ its nearest affinities to the West Indian flora. tematicos del plancton en anos anteriores en las His (Conger 1937-38) investigations showed that nguas del Caribe y del Golfo de Mexico ..." there was'little change of quantity or kinds of It is true still that little has been done on tax­ the planktonic diatoms during his lO-week (sum­ onomic studies of Gulf of Mexico phytoplankters, mer) stay at the laboratory except that there was and even fewer ecological studies have been made. "some slight increase" in abundance after a period The earliest published observations on the of heavy wind. He emphasized that the region phytoplankton of the Gulf of Mexico appear to of the Dry Tortugas is a silica-poor region and be those of Alexander Agassiz (1888) who men­ that Si is a limiting factor there in diatom pro­ tioned, in very general terms, the occurrence of duction. For comparative purposes he (Conger Coccolithophoridae in the central regions of the 1927-28) also studied some samples from Tampa Gulf. He mentioned more specifically the occur­ Bay and found the water rich with plankton. rence of large chains and patches "of dirty yellow He stated that the "richness of this area in diatoms color" of the filamentous blue-green alga he may account for theabundance of marinelife there." identified as "probably" the same as the Tri­ Riley (1937, 1938) studied phytoplankton pro­ chodesmium erythraeum that is so famous in the duction in Gulf waters, largely through the plant Red Sea. Dr. Drouet of the Chicago Natural pigment method. In his former report (Riley History Museum has identified the most common 1937) be considered the influence of the Mis­ filamentous blue-green alga from Florida and Texas sissippi River drainage upon the phytoplankton lllarine waters as Skujaella [Trichodesmium] in the northern portion of the Gulf. A number thiebauti (Davis, 1950), and probably this is the of stations were established from Galveston to species referred to above. Agassiz also referred to ~obile ~nd south to the thousand-fathom line the occurrence everywhere, but in small patches (fig. 44). Analyses were made of salinity, ph'os­ only, of a species of Sargassum. phate, copper, plant pigments, and weight of From the time of Agassiz' (op. cit.) early super­ organic matter. It was found that the water ficia.l report until 1937 there were no detailed of the :\1ississippi River itself was very rich in reports on Gulf of Mexico phytoplankters other phosphates and that this water spread over the than individual species records such as that of surface of the northern Gulf both to the east and Taylor (1928) who listed the occurrence of to the west but especially to the east in the direc­ Skujaella [Trichodesmium] thiebauti and of two tion of Mobile (fig. 45). Plant pigments were Common pelagic species of Sargassum (S. natans highest in the waters richest in phosphates (fig. and S. jluitans) near or at the Tortugas Labora­ 46). Samples obtained from completely fresh tory. In addition, there were certain other river water contained higher values for plant studies made at the Tortugas Laboratory which, pigments than elsewhere, but these values were hOwever, appear not to have been reported in not especially high for fresh waters. This in­ detail. Thus, Grave and Burkenroad (1928-29) dicated that the high turbidity of the river water reported diatoms among those plankters that were was a deterrent to phytoplankton growth, for abundant or that occurred regularly, while Conger nutrient conditions were especially favorable for (1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1928-29, 1937-38, phytoplankton production. Analyses in the open 1938-39) briefly summarized his work on diatoms, Gulf showed typically low values. 2159534 0-54-12 163 164 FISHERY BULLETI OF THE ISH AD WILDLI E SERVICE )lLJ---...L.--...I---..L---.L---L-----'----'----'----'----U '. 'J,.... ..... o u,• •,,,e ,. ."" / / •• J - ",... J .....'" ( . .... / -,." ,- ,lO·" .. •• t) u .. '0 .. .. 'T FIOURE 44.-StatioDS stablished by Ril y (1937) in the north rn portion of th ulf of M xico. SURFACE PHOSPHATE CONTENTS IOILLIG~AIO' "I~ eUlle 101 T [~S _---2 FIOURE 45.-Distribution of phosphat s in th wa f8 of th north rn portion of th Gulf of M xico. 1 h later work by Riley (1938) wa don in th fiIt r pap('r. P rt of each net ampl wa tudi d Dry Tortuga at th nel of the chain of th for numb l' f animal pres nt, for plankton lorida K y in th e t rn part of th ult. wight, and for r ani mat rial w('ight, whil(· Her th wat r wa shallow and with no influ nc th r maind('r w udi I frIll qllantit of of land draina of any 'on qu n e. om plant pigm nt. It w s found that thl' plant sampl s wer tak nat th dg of th ulL'tr am, pigm nls f thl' nct plankt n 'n litut d 1 .. but most of them w r taken at two f(·gular than 2 p l'r nt f that (' urring in UH' filtt'rpd stntions b tw n Logg(·rh ad K y and ard n samples. Thus, the m an value for tht· nl't plank­ Key. Plankton sample were obtained by sieving ton was 17 Harvey units p r m. 3, whil· th av('rag(' 400 lit rs of water thr ugh a o. 20 ilk n t, and for th t tal plankton w . 924 IIarv('y llTli t8 pN as' ond t of ampl w obtain d by fiIt rin m. 3, indi ating a v ry high proportion of 111\,11­ from 3 t 10 lit rs through a Whatman o. 2 noplankt n. Til ttl quantity f plankt n ULF OF M leo 165 SURFACE CHLOROPHYLL CONTE NT S "AIlVn ~"lT' '111 LITlIl FlO R 6. Di tributl n r plant pi m nLs in th w t rs f th n rth rn portl nor th wa mu h I than th t t b fund in m t argw. 'urn , n hi h I' latitud , th n t plankt n b iug p­ ulL Tht' ut r IP rc nt of th pring bl m . n- th En Ii h hann 1. Th total hi r ph 11 at th tation that. la I l to Logg rh ad K y (it wa th les p1' clueti f Ril y' two main tation) wa onl nb lit 4 P 1" nt f th summ r fOP detrrmincd b thr sam author in Long I land uud b imilnf m th d. Ril Y (193) Iso a t mpl d t lud pI' duc- f ampling tivit and limiting fact in pI' ductivil b mean f 0 yg n detrrmination in (' wat r ampl bat had b n nRn d in hitt' and dark b ttl '1' m of th' , nitrat and ph ,- phat had b en add d. II fund thfl.t ill the wat f tho 'I' l'tuga r 'gi n th nitl'l1L(, w 1'0 m r important tit n th ph ph ate a limiting [acto in phytoplankt 11 pI' dll ti n. P 1'1' (193 ) mad a quan ill i pelagic p ci f arga,,'um in th o1'th tlanti, tbe aribbN n and th ul£ [ ampl(' , l' drag iog sp ci I n t a th urf e f th \ at f whil th Atlant' traY ling £1' m t ti n tati non hydr graphi rui ('. For ca('h. mpl , th catch was s rt d as t pccic and weigh d n board ship. Within th ulf f Me ic pI' pt'r, a total of 26 am pI w bt in d during th pring tn nth (F bruar 1 t pril 12) f 1 3. T b ain lh mpl, th n dra g d thr ugh 166 FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE paratively poor quality of the plants in the in two of the samples under discussion this species Gulf. constituted 99.28 and 98.99 percent of the total In his investigation, Parr (1939) found that the organisms present. Most of the other organisms taxonomy of Sargassum is very confused and that were diatoms. Gunter et al. (1948), in addition there are many v8.-riations which, however, merge to discussing the red tide as such, discussed other into one another. He found that in the Gulf the associated phenomena in the plankton cycle. form he designated as S. natans (I) composed 87 Color changes of the water, as deciphered by these percent of the specimens with approximately 6.5 authors, are described in the section on the red percent each for S. natans (VIII) and S. jluitans tide. Gunter et al. (op. cit.) described in some (III). Small quantities of S. natans (II) and S. detail other plankters, both animal and plant, jluitans (X) were also observed. associated with these changes. They summarized The next paper to appear on the phytoplankton the sequence as follows (pp. 318-319): of the Gulf was written by Osorio Tafall (1944) There was first the appearancc of numbers of Gymno­ who dealt, however, only with a single species, dinium brevis mixed in with other normal plankton types, namely, with the diatom, Biddulphia sinensis mostly diatoms .
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