“…Although water quality in the Beibu Gulf is generally good, the fast development along the Beibu Gulf Economical Rim has brought pressure to the environment ( Kaiser et al, 2013 ; Lai et al, 2014 ; Lao et al, 2019 ). Some coastal sea areas, such as Qinzhou Bay, Fangchenggang Bay and Lianzhou Bay, have been undertaking severe environmental problems, such as eutrophication ( Lai et al, 2014 ; Lao et al, 2021 ; Pan et al, 2021 ) and HABs ( Xu et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2021 ; Niu et al, 2022 ; Xie et al, 2023 ). Before 2000, the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa was the dominant bloom species in the Beibu Gulf, and blooms of cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates, and diatoms co-occurred during the period 2001–2010, and the haptophyte Phaeocystis globosa has become a major causative species of HABs after 2011 ( Xu et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2021 ; Gibson et al, 2022 ; Zhu et al, 2023 ).…”