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Spatial distribution patterns of phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity in six coral atolls in the central South China Sea

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Abstract

Nutrients’ concentration, phytoplankton biomass, and primary productivity were investigated in six coral atolls in the central South China Sea during the southwest monsoon in the early summer. Nutrients’ concentrations were generally very low in these atolls, and showed no obvious variation among outer reef slope, reef flat, and lagoon. The spatial variation of phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity were significant among the different regions of the atolls, and generally followed the order of outer reef slope < reef flat < lagoon. Phytoplankton biomass might be a more sensitive indicator than nutrients for the habitat differences in coral atoll ecosystem. The lagoon of Huangyan Atoll showed the highest phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity. The phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity were mainly contributed by pico-phytoplankton. Moreover, our results suggested that there might have a threshold value of Chl a for pico-phytoplankton abundance. When Chl a was higher than this threshold value (about 0.5 µg L−1), the pico-phytoplankton abundance should not linearly increase with the Chl a concentration. Due to the significantly high-phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity, the anthropogenic eutrophication should be paid attention in the lagoon of Huangyan Atoll.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Shi Qi and Dr. Tao Shichen for their assistance in the field investigation. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0603204, 2017FY201404), the National Basic Research Program of China (2015CB452903), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (31670458), the special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201403008) and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (2014B030301064).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

    Zhixin Ke, Yehui Tan, Liangmin Huang, Huajian Liu, Jiaxing Liu, Xin Jiang & Junxing Wang

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, West Xin’gang Road 164#, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Zhixin Ke

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yehui Tan & Liangmin Huang

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  1. Zhixin Ke
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  2. Yehui Tan
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Correspondence to Yehui Tan.

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Ke, Z., Tan, Y., Huang, L. et al. Spatial distribution patterns of phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity in six coral atolls in the central South China Sea. Coral Reefs 37, 919–927 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-018-1717-7

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