Do plankton reflect the environmental quality status? The case of a post-industrial Mediterranean Bay

Margiotta, Francesca; Balestra, Cecilia; Buondonno, Angela; Casotti, Raffaella; D’Ambra, Isabella; Capua, Iole Di; Gallia, Roberto; Mazzocchi, Maria Grazia; Merquiol, Louise; Pepi, Milva; Percopo, Isabella; Saggiomo, Maria; Sarno, Diana; Zingone, Adriana

doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.104980

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The stability and resistance in a variable environment under both anthropogenic and climatic pressures may have important implications for management, suggesting that phytoplankton community structure may not be a good indicator of environmental changes 71 , 72 . However, while this study has been focused on regular occurrence patterns and stability signals, possible ‘sentinels’ should probably be looked at in specific phytoplankton attributes, not considered in our analyses, such as diversity and size, or interannual variability and abundance trends of specific taxa.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photoperiod-driven rhythms reveal multi-decadal stability of phytoplankton communities in a highly fluctuating coastal environment

Longobardi

Dubroca

Margiotta

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Phytoplankton play a pivotal role in global biogeochemical and trophic processes and provide essential ecosystem services. However, there is still no broad consensus on how and to what extent their community composition responds to environmental variability. Here, high-frequency oceanographic and biological data collected over more than 25 years in a coastal Mediterranean site are used to shed light on the temporal patterns of phytoplankton species and assemblages in their environmental context. Because of the proximity to the coast and due to large-scale variations, environmental conditions showed variability on the short and long-term scales. Nonetheless, an impressive regularity characterised the annual occurrence of phytoplankton species and their assemblages, which translated into their remarkable stability over decades. Photoperiod was the dominant factor related to community turnover and replacement, which points at a possible endogenous regulation of biological processes associated with species-specific phenological patterns, in analogy with terrestrial plants. These results highlight the considerable stability and resistance of phytoplankton communities in response to different environmental pressures, which contrast the view of these organisms as passively undergoing changes that occur at different temporal scales in their habitat, and show how, under certain conditions, biological processes may prevail over environmental forcing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photoperiod-driven rhythms reveal multi-decadal stability of phytoplankton communities in a highly fluctuating coastal environment

Longobardi

Dubroca

Margiotta

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…The marine area around Baia/Bacoli is particularly impacted through dense urban settlements, intense maritime traffic and mussel aquaculture (Appolloni et al, 2018). Additionally, along the region of the Gulf of Pozzuoli, untreated or not appropriately depurated sewage discharges are still present (Margiotta et al, 2020). The different exposure to anthropogenic pressures determines the current conditions of P. oceanica meadows at both locations.…”

Section: Sampling Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Warming Enhance the Effects of Eutrophication in the Seagrass Posidonia oceanica?

et al. 2020

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Seagrass meadows are disappearing at rates comparable to those reported for mangroves, coral reefs, and tropical rainforests. One of the main causes of their decline is the so-called cultural eutrophication, i.e., the input of abnormal amounts of nutrients derived from human activities. Besides the impact of eutrophication at a local scale, the occurrence of additional stress factors such as global sea warming may create synergisms in detriment of seagrass meadows’ health. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate if plants undergoing chronic cultural eutrophication and plants growing in relatively pristine waters are more (or less) sensitive to heat stress, nutrient load and the combination of both stressors. To address this question, a mesocosm experiment was conducted using Posidonia oceanica collected from two environments with different nutrients load history. Plants were exposed in controlled conditions to high nutrient concentrations, increased temperature and their combination for 5 weeks, to assess the effect of the single stressors and their interaction. Our results revealed that plants experiencing chronic cultural eutrophication (EU) are more sensitive to further exposure to multiple stressors than plants growing in oligotrophic habitats (OL). OL and EU plants showed different morphological traits and physiological performances, which corroborates the role of local pressures in activating different strategies in response to global environmental changes. EU-plants appeared to be weaker during the treatments, showing the greatest percentage of mortality, particularly under increased temperature. Temperature and nutrient treatments showed opposite effects when tested individually and an offset response when combined. The activation of physiological strategies with high energetic expenses to cope with excess of nutrients and other stressors, could affect plants present and future persistence, particularly under eutrophic conditions. Our results represent a step forward in understanding the complex interactions that occur in natural environments. Moreover, unraveling intraspecific strategies and the role of local acclimation/adaptation in response to multiple stressors could be crucial for seagrass conservation strategies under a climate change scenario.

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“…Additionally, very little is known about the natural habitat of polyps of A. relicta and C. tuberculata in Mljet lake and the Bay of Pozzuoli, respectively. Salinity was kept constant (38) throughout the rearing period for both species, and this value is likely the same that polyps experience in their natural habitat, considered this is the average value both in Mljet lake 39 and the bay of Pozzuoli 34 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Medusae were placed individually in plastic bags filled with seawater and transported to the laboratory. A single female Cotylorhiza tuberculata was collected using a dip net in the bay of Pozzuoli, located in the north-eastern part of the Gulf of Naples (Italy) during October 2019 within the sampling activities of the project “ABBaCo” 34 . The medusa was placed in a plastic bucket filled with seawater and transported to the laboratory.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Indirect development” increases reproductive plasticity and contributes to the success of scyphozoan jellyfish in the oceans

D’Ambra

Merquiol

Graham

et al. 2021

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Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have been looking for the key(s) to the success of scyphomedusae through their long evolutionary history in multiple habitats. Their ability to generate young medusae (ephyrae) via two distinct reproductive strategies, strobilation or direct development from planula into ephyra without a polyp stage, has been a potential explanation. In addition to these reproductive modes, here we provide evidence of a third ephyral production which has been rarely observed and often confused with direct development from planula into ephyra. Planulae of Aurelia relicta Scorrano et al. 2017 and Cotylorhiza tuberculata (Macri 1778) settled and formed fully-grown polyps which transformed into ephyrae within several days. In distinction to monodisk strobilation, the basal polyp of indirect development was merely a non-tentaculate stalk that dissolved shortly after detachment of the ephyra. We provide a fully detailed description of this variant that increases reproductive plasticity within scyphozoan life cycles and is different than either true direct development or the monodisk strobilation. Our observations of this pattern in co-occurrence with mono- and polydisk strobilation in Aurelia spp. suggest that this reproductive mode may be crucial for the survival of some scyphozoan populations within the frame of a bet-hedging strategy and contribute to their long evolutionary success throughout the varied conditions of past and future oceans.

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Do plankton reflect the environmental quality status? The case of a post-industrial Mediterranean Bay

Cited by 20 publications

References 60 publications

Photoperiod-driven rhythms reveal multi-decadal stability of phytoplankton communities in a highly fluctuating coastal environment

Photoperiod-driven rhythms reveal multi-decadal stability of phytoplankton communities in a highly fluctuating coastal environment

Does Warming Enhance the Effects of Eutrophication in the Seagrass Posidonia oceanica?

“Indirect development” increases reproductive plasticity and contributes to the success of scyphozoan jellyfish in the oceans

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