Phytoplankton ecology and production in the Red Sea off Jiddah, Saudi Arabia

Shaikh, E. A.; Roff, John C.; Dowidar, N. M.

doi:10.1007/bf00392681

Cited by 64 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The basin extends to about 30 • N in the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba (Eilat) and terminates to the south at the straits of Bab al Mandeb at approximately 12.5 • N. The length of the Red Sea is roughly 2250 km, with a maximum width of 355 km and a maximum depth of 3040 m; although the average depth is 490 m [2,3]. The Red Sea has no river inflow or stream sources and has a high evaporation rate at more than 210 cm/yr [4] and a precipitation rate of less than 100 mm/yr [5,6], resulting in the highest salinity of any major tropical oceanic basin [4]. Salinity increases from 36.5% in the far southern region to 40-41% towards the northern part [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic Use of Remote Sensing and Modeling to Assess an Anomalously High Chlorophyll-a Event during Summer 2015 in the South Central Red Sea

El-Askary

Manikandan

et al. 2017

Remote Sensing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An anomalously high chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) event (>2 mg/m 3 ) during June 2015 in the South Central Red Sea (17.5 • to 22 • N, 37 • to 42 • E) was observed using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from the Terra and Aqua satellite platforms. This differs from the low Chl-a values (<0.5 mg/m 3 ) usually encountered over the same region during summertime. To assess this anomaly and possible causes, we used a wide range of oceanographical and meteorological datasets, including Chl-a concentrations, sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface height (SSH), mixed layer depth (MLD), ocean current velocity and aerosol optical depth (AOD) obtained from different sensors and models. Findings confirmed this anomalous behavior in the spatial domain using Hovmöller data analysis techniques, while a time series analysis addressed monthly and daily variability. Our analysis suggests that a combination of factors controlling nutrient supply contributed to the anomalous phytoplankton growth. These factors include horizontal transfer of upwelling water through eddy circulation and possible mineral fertilization from atmospheric dust deposition. Coral reefs might have provided extra nutrient supply, yet this is out of the scope of our analysis. We thought that dust deposition from a coastal dust jet event in late June, coinciding with the phytoplankton blooms in the area under investigation, might have also contributed as shown by our AOD findings. However, a lag cross correlation showed a two-month lag between strong dust outbreak and the high Chl-a anomaly. The high Chl-a concentration at the edge of the eddy emphasizes the importance of horizontal advection in fertilizing oligotrophic (nutrient poor) Red Sea waters.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic Use of Remote Sensing and Modeling to Assess an Anomalously High Chlorophyll-a Event during Summer 2015 in the South Central Red Sea

El-Askary

Manikandan

et al. 2017

Remote Sensing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As nutrient concentrations are low, primary production has been considered to b e less than 100 m g C m-2 d-l (Halim 1984, Thiel & Weikert 1984. However, more recent evidence suggests that the true phytoplankton production is much higher (> 1 g C m-* d-l) because autotrophic picoplankton plays a major role and had escaped earlier measurements (Shaikh et al 1986, Lenz e t al. 1988.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1988. Although phytoplankton ecology and production (Shaikh et al 1986) and zooplankton (Weikert 1982, Beckmann 1984, Bottger 1987, Bottger-Schnack 1988 have been studied in the Red Sea, virtually nothing, to my knowledge, is known about bacterial and protozoan biomass, species composition and production in the Red Sea. This paper presents results of growth and grazing experiments with pelagic bacteria and HNF using procaryotic and eucaryotic metabolic inhibitors obtained during a cruise of the German RV 'Meteor' through the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in 1987.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The microbial loop in the Red Sea. dynamics of pelagic bacteria and heterotrophic nanoflagellates

Weisse¹

1989

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Growth and grazing experiments with free-liv~ng bacteria and nano-and microzooplankton were conducted in February-March 1987 in the central Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden using metabolic inhibitors. Results demonstrate the existence of a dynamic 'microbial loop' which dominates the pelagic system in terms of biomass and production. In the epipelagial, bacterial abundance ranged from 5.2 to 8.8 X 105 cells ml-l, and heterotrophic nanoflagellate (HNF) abundance from 0.6 to 1.2 X lo3 cells ml-l. Bacterial growth rates varied between 0 014 and 0.097 h-', grazing rates between 0.010 and 0.108 h-' Population grazlng rates corresponded to 2.0 to 5.4 x 104 bacteria consumed ml-' h-' Bacterial biomass, growth and grazing rates were higher in the central Red Sea than in the Gulf of Aden.Bacterial growth was inversely related to grazing pressure HNF were the major bacterial consumers with average ingestion rates of 29 bacteria HNF-l h-' HNF production was controlled by microzooplankton predabon. Net growth rates of bacteria and HNF were also negatively coupled and exhibited considerable temporal variation. There was also some indication for diurnal rhythms of bacterial growth and grazing loss rates. At night, grazing Impact on bacteria was reduced to less than half the noon value. The temporal variations observed caution against extrapolations derived from routine experiments run at fixed hours.

show abstract

“…The Red Sea is a unique region in the tropics as it is partially isolated from the open ocean and landlocked (Shaikh et al 1986). The evaporation rate is reported to be high (>2 m year -1 , Morcos 1970) and rainfall is low, occurring mostly from October to May.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Larval development and settlement of the barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite from the Red Sea: Influence of the nauplii hatching season

Al-Aidaroos

Satheesh

2014

Oceanological and Hydrobiological Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite adults were collected from the Jeddah coast of the Red Sea during different seasons. The nauplii released by adults in autumn, winter, spring and summer were reared under laboratory conditions to know the larval development duration and settlement in relation to the hatching season. The nauplii reared during winter (11 days) and autumn (13 days) took longer to reach the cypris stage compared to nauplii reared in summer (6 days) and spring (7 days). The most successful settlement of larvae was observed in spring and summer and the least successful − in winter. The observations of gonads showed that summer and spring are the active breeding season for A. amphitrite in the Red Sea. The results of this study indicated that the nauplii hatching season plays a significant role in the larval development and settlement of barnacles in the Red Sea.

show abstract

Phytoplankton ecology and production in the Red Sea off Jiddah, Saudi Arabia

Cited by 64 publications

References 45 publications

Synergistic Use of Remote Sensing and Modeling to Assess an Anomalously High Chlorophyll-a Event during Summer 2015 in the South Central Red Sea

Synergistic Use of Remote Sensing and Modeling to Assess an Anomalously High Chlorophyll-a Event during Summer 2015 in the South Central Red Sea

The microbial loop in the Red Sea. dynamics of pelagic bacteria and heterotrophic nanoflagellates

Larval development and settlement of the barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite from the Red Sea: Influence of the nauplii hatching season

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About