• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.109-119
• /
• 2006

This study investigated the effect of artificially enhanced mesozooplankton on the phytoplankton dynamics during fall blooming period using a mesocosm in Jangmok bay located in the Southern Sea of Korea in 2001. The four bags with 2,500 liter seawater containment were directly filled with the ambient water. And then, abundances of mesozooplankton in two experimental bags were treated 6 times higher than those in control bags by towing with net($300{\mu}m$) through the ambient water. Phytoplankton community between control and experimental bags were not significantly different in terms of chlorophyll-a(chl-a) concentration and standing crop (one-way ANOVA, p>0.05) during the study period. Initial high standing crop and chl-a concentration of phytoplankton drastically decreased and remained low until the end of the experiment in all bags. Diatoms, accounting for most of the phytoplankton community, consisted of Skeletonema costatum, Pseudo-nitzschia seriata, Chaetoceros curvisetus, Ch. debilis, Cerataulina pelagica, Thalassiosira pacifica, Cylindrotheca closterium, and Leptocylindrus danicus. Noctiluca scintillans dominated the temporal variation of mesozooplankton abundances, which peaked on Day 10 in the control and experimental bags, while the next dominant copepods showed their peak on Day 7. Shortly after mesozooplankton addition, copepod abundance in the experimental bags was obviously higher than that in the control bags on Day 1, however, it became similar to that in the control bags during the remnant period. It was supported by the higher abundance and length of both ctenophores and hydromedusae in experimental bags relative to the control bags. However, the cascading trophic effect, commonly leading to re-increase of phytoplankton abundance, was not found in the experimental bags, indicating that copepods were not able to control the phytoplankton in the bags based on the low grazing rate of Acartia erythraea. Besides that, rapidly sunken diatoms in the absence of natural turbulence as well as N-limited condition likely contributed the no occurrence of re-increased phytoplankton in the experimental bags.