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Updated: Jun 8, 2025
07:20
Design and Use of an Apparatus for Quantifying Bivalve Suspension Feeding at Sea
Published on: September 5, 2018
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Monitoring bay-scale ecosystem changes in bivalve aquaculture embayments using flow cytometry.
Hannah Sharpe1, Thomas Guyondet2, Jeffrey Barrell2
1St. Andrews Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada.
Plos One
|November 5, 2024
Summary
Bivalve aquaculture may reduce phytoplankton near leases and boost bacteria. Environmental factors significantly influence plankton, requiring careful sampling design for accurate aquaculture impact assessments.
Area of Science:
- Marine Ecology
- Aquaculture Science
- Microbial Oceanography
Background:
- Limited understanding of bivalve aquaculture's impact on bay-wide plankton.
- Hydrodynamics and environmental factors complicate ecosystem assessments.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate spatio-temporal plankton variations in bivalve aquaculture embayments.
- Determine aquaculture's influence on bacteria and phytoplankton (< 20 μm).
Main Methods:
- Utilized flow cytometry for high-resolution plankton analysis.
- Studied four bivalve aquaculture embayments with varying environmental conditions.
Main Results:
- Higher bacteria and phytoplankton in shallow, nutrient-rich bays.
- Picophytoplankton dominance under depleted nutrients, varying with freshwater/marine influence.
- Bivalve aquaculture potentially reduces phytoplankton near leases and increases bacteria.
Conclusions:
- Environmental forcings are key drivers of plankton dynamics.
- Aquaculture effects must be interpreted considering grazing, benthic-pelagic coupling, and biogeochemical cycling.
- Provides guidance for flow cytometry sampling in aquaculture sites based on site-specific geomorphology and hydrodynamics.
