Resting Stage of Plankton Diversity from Singapore Coastal Water: Implications for Harmful Algae Blooms and Coastal Management

Abstract

Resting strategies of planktonic organisms are important for the ecological processes of coastal waters and their impacts should be taken into consideration in management of water bodies used by multiple industries. We combined different approaches to evaluate the importance of resting stages in Singapore coastal waters. We used molecular approaches to improve the knowledge on Singapore biodiversity, we sampled and extracted cysts from sediments to evaluate the density of resting stages in Johor Strait, and we compared systematically information on Singapore planktonic biodiversity to existing published information on resting stages from these reported organisms. This is the first study evaluating the importance of resting stages in Singapore waters. Above 120 species reported in Singapore are known to produce resting stages though no previous work has ever been done to evaluate the importance of these strategies in these waters. The results from the resting stage survey confirmed 0.66 to 5.34 cyst g dry weight sediment were present in the Johor Strait suggesting that cysts may be flushed by tidal currents into and out of the strait regularly. This also suggest that the blooms occurring in Singapore are likely due to secondary growth of Harmful Algae Bloom species in the water rather than from direct germination of cysts from sediment. Finally, we discuss the importance of these resting eggs for three main national industries in Singapore (shipping, marine aquaculture and provision of drinking water through seawater desalination). We argue that this study will serve as a baseline for some of the future management of Singapore waters.

Surface Phytoplankton Assemblages and Controlling Factors in the Strait of Malacca and Sunda Shelf

“…As reported in early study, major spring bloom and minor winter bloom typically occurred in SGS, dominated by Chaetoceros and Coscinodiscus (Ah Kow, 1973). Recently, Trottet et al (2018) emphasized the importance of resting strategy occurring in phytoplankton to Singapore coastal harmful blooms. From their point of view, Singapore blooms may be caused by the secondary growth of cysts which were flushed into the water by tidal force.…”

“…More and more frequent harmful blooms occurred in SM, intensive monitoring researches were carried out here (Lim et al, 2012;Teen et al, 2012). Singapore as the second largest port, potential invasive species from ship ballast water could impact local habitat destruction (Gollasch et al, 2000;Joachimsthal et al, 2004;Cooper et al, 2007;Trottet et al, 2018). Besides, Singapore experienced remarkable changes over the last centuries, man-made habitat, rapid economic development, considerably affected marine organisms and their biodiversity (Tan et al, 2016).…”

“…HAB events in SM have an extremely adverse effect on fishery industry and mariculture (Anderson et al, 2012;Teen et al, 2012). In addition to HAB events, jellyfish blooms and some bioinvasion incidents can also take place here caused by a natural or human factor (Trottet et al, 2018). HAB species has the unique ability to supplement their biomass production by grazing or organic matter (Glibert et al, 2001).…”

“…The majority of related phytoplankton research around the SM and SS has been focused on Singapore coastal area (Gin et al, 2000;Tkalich et al, 2002;Tan et al, 2016;Trottet et al, 2018). At the same time, several integrated study on phytoplankton diversity have been performed in SM (Te et al, 1998;Li et al, 2013;Siswanto and Tanaka, 2014) and SS (Ke et al, 2012;Zhixin et al, 2012;Ooi et al, 2013;Ke et al, 2014).…”

Improved Modeling of Sediment Oxygen Kinetics and Fluxes in Lakes and Reservoirs

“…Algal and cyanobacterial blooms are significant concerns for lake and reservoir management because they stimulate eutrophication 9 , complicate water treatment processes and increase water treatment costs 10 . To make matters worse, some algae and cyanobacteria can be toxic 11 (e.g., Karenia brevis), causing fish mortalities 9 and restricting tourism in coastal areas 12 .…”