Organic carbon sources and sinks in San Francisco Bay: variability induced by river flow

Jassby, AD; Cloern, JE; Powell, TM

doi:10.3354/meps095039

Cited by 112 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Fisher et al, 1998;Minor et al, 2006;Peterson et al, 1994). Jassby et al (1993) found that the influence of discharge on DOC dynamics in San Francisco Bay varied both spatially within the estuary and temporally between years. The dominance of discharge may in part be explained by its highly episodic nature in South-East Australia.…”

Section: 5)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Highs and lows: The effect of differently sized freshwater inflows on estuarine carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and chlorophyll a dynamics

Hitchcock

Mitrovic

2015

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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Freshwater inflows play a key role in the delivery of organic carbon to estuaries. However, our understanding of the dynamics between discharge and carbon globally is limited. In this study we performed a 30-month monitoring study on the Bega and Clyde River estuaries, Australia, to understand the influence that discharge had on carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and chlorophyll a dynamics. We hypothesised that 1) discharge would be the most important factor influencing carbon and nutrient concentrations, though during low flows chlorophyll a would also be positively related to carbon, 2) bacteria would be related to dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and chlorophyll a to temperature, nitrogen and phosphorus, and 3) that concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacterial biomass and chlorophyll a would be significantly different between large 'flood flows', smaller 'fresh flows' and base flow conditions. We found that discharge was always the most important factor influencing carbon and nutrient concentrations, and that primary production appeared to have little influence on the variation in DOC concentration even during base flow conditions. We suggest this relationship is likely due to highly episodic discharge that occurred during the study period. Bacteria were related to DOC in the lower estuary sites, but phosphorus in the upper estuary. We suggest this is likely due to the input of bioavailable carbon in the upper estuary leading bacteria to be P limited, which changes downstream to carbon limitation as DOC becomes more refractory. Chlorophyll a was positively related to temperature but not nutrients, which we suggest may be due to competition with bacteria for phosphorus in the upper estuary. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were different under flood, fresh and base flow conditions, though these differences sometimes varied between estuary locations for different resources. Overall, the results demonstrate that discharge plays an important structuring role for carbon, nutrient and bacteria dynamics on the Bega and Clyde Rivers, and that the differences observed between flood and fresh inflows suggest that further study into the influence of differently sized inflow events is important.

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Section: 5)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Highs and lows: The effect of differently sized freshwater inflows on estuarine carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and chlorophyll a dynamics

Hitchcock

Mitrovic

2015

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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“…In contrast, the food webs of lotic systems are driven primarily by riparian-derived allochthonous production. Estuarine aquatic food webs are a complex mix of both pelagic and intertidal marsh production (Jassby et al 1993;Jassby and Cloern 2000;Sobczak et al 2002Sobczak et al , 2005.…”

Section: Diagram 3-primary Production To Grazersmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Conceptual Model of the Aquatic Food Web of the Upper San Francisco Estuary

Durand¹

2015

SFEWS

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“…Phytoplankton photosynthesis is the primary energy supply to metazoan food webs of San Francisco Bay (Jassby et al 1993, Sobczak et al 2002 and other estuaries. The efficiency of energy transfer from phytoplankton to consumers and ultimate production at upper trophic levels vary with algal species composition: diatom-dominated marine upwelling systems sustain 50 times more fish biomass per unit of phytoplankton biomass than cyanobacteria-dominated lakes (Brett & Müller-Navarra 1997).…”

Section: Ecological Significance Of Phytoplankton Functional Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Phytoplankton community ecology: principles applied in San Francisco Bay

Cloern¹,

Dufford²

2005

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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267

175

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In his seminal 1961 paper 'The paradox of the plankton' Am Nat 95:137-147, G. E. Hutchinson asked why many species of phytoplankton can coexist while competing for a small number of limiting resources in an unstructured habitat. Hutchinson anticipated the resolution of his paradox, recognizing that communities are organized by processes beyond resource competition including species interactions, habitat variability and dispersal. Since 1961 we have made fundamental discoveries that have revolutionized our conceptual understanding of pelagic ecology, including (1) habitat heterogeneity at all scales relevant to plankton population dynamics, (2) community shifts in response to global climate cycles, (3) fast and selective predation as a powerful top-down force to shape phytoplankton communities, (4) turbulent mixing as a physical process that selects species on the basis of their size and form, (5) mixotrophy that allows some algal species to tap organic nutrient pools and function at multiple trophic levels, (6) taxon-specific life cycles including alternating vegetative and resting stages, and (7) the pelagic as an open system where communities are continually reshaped by species immigration. Here we synthesize these discoveries to show how they validate and amplify Hutchinson's hypothesis that phytoplankton communities are assembled by many processes. Our synthesis is built around observations of phytoplankton species composition from a decade of study in San Francisco Bay, used as a case study to illustrate the contemporary principles of phytoplankton community ecology. We apply these principles to address 2 central questions:

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Organic carbon sources and sinks in San Francisco Bay: variability induced by river flow

Cited by 112 publications

References 39 publications

Highs and lows: The effect of differently sized freshwater inflows on estuarine carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and chlorophyll a dynamics

Highs and lows: The effect of differently sized freshwater inflows on estuarine carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and chlorophyll a dynamics

A Conceptual Model of the Aquatic Food Web of the Upper San Francisco Estuary

Phytoplankton community ecology: principles applied in San Francisco Bay

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