Analysis of the Influence of Abiotic Factors on the Development of Microalgae in the Hyperhaline Kuyalnyk Estuary (Ukraine, the Black Sea Northwestern Coast)

Abstract

Investigations were carried out in the ecosystem of the Kuyalnyk estuary during high water period in 2004-2007. Relationships between the species diversity of microalgae and their quantitative characteristics (cell numbers and biomass) and abiotic factors, including hydrophysical (water temperature, transparency, and suspended matter content), meteorological (precipitation sum), and hydrochemical (water salinity, the content of nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon inorganic compounds, dissolved oxygen, readily oxidized organic matter, and pH) ones, were analyzed in different seasons. It has been shown that the biomass of microalgae in the Kuyalnyk estuary during vegetation season from April until October 2004-2007 correlated well with water level (<i>r</i> = -0.69) and water salinity (<i>r</i> = 0.71), and also with the content of mineral phosphorus (<i>r</i> = 0.77). The correlation with other abiotic factors was not so significant and depended on season.