Date of Award
8-16-2024
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
Marine Science
First Advisor
James Pinckney
Abstract
The urbanization of coastal environments in recent decades has caused an accelerating increase in nutrient-rich runoff from the landscape. The presence of these excess nutrients in the aquatic environment can result in degradation of water quality and harmful algal blooms. In South Carolina (SC), coastal development continues to threaten the resiliency of salt marsh estuaries, especially in combination with other stressors like climate change and sea level rise. Estuaries are important nurseries and habitats for fisheries and ecotourism. The South Carolina Estuarine and Coastal Assessment Program (SCECAP) is an ongoing monitoring program that assesses the habitat condition along the coast of SC across 30 sites (15 tidal creek and 15 open water estuarine environments) each year. Water samples were collected during the SCECAP to assess phytoplankton biomass and composition. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used to assess phytoplankton communities between tidal creek and open water estuarine habitat types. Phytoplankton composition was determined using both ChemTax and PhytoClass to compare the two analytical approaches. Phytoplankton biomass was compared to total river discharge in the weeks prior to sampling across several years of the study to determine the influence of coastal run-off. Tidal creeks had significantly higher predicted phytoplankton biomass for the sampling period 1999-2022 (p < 0.001) and significantly higher biomass for the sampling year 2023 (p < 0.001) compared to open water habitats. PhytoClass resulted in similar concentrations of all algal groups except haptophytes when compared to ChemTax. Phytoplankton biomass was positively correlated with discharge for Edisto and Santee River Basins for both habitat types (p < 0.05). Evaluating management-based methodologies in terms of separating estuaries by habitat type, comparing algal class abundances between different pigment-based taxonomy methodologies, and quantifying the influences of coastal run-off on phytoplankton biomass are important topics in understanding the human impacts on coastal ecosystems and how to implement better management strategies.
Rights
© 2024, Shannon Elizabeth Powers
Recommended Citation
Powers, S. E.(2024). Assessing Multi-Annual Phytoplankton Community Compositions and Biomass Across Tidal Creek and Open Water Estuarine Habitats in South Carolina. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/7865