The concept of ecological succession applied to phytoplankton over four consecutive years in five ponds featuring a salinity gradient

Impacts of restoration of an uncontrolled phosphogypsum dumpsite on the seasonal distribution of abiotic variables, phytoplankton, copepods, and ciliates in a man-made solar saltern

“…Consequently, Tunisian authorities undertook the Taparura project in 2006 to attack the phosphogypsum pollution at its source, to clean the ponds of an excess of macrophytes and to generally improve the regional environment. We (Abid et al 2008;Elloumi et al 2009; Khemakhem et al 2010) and others (Joint et al 2002;Oren 2005) have shown that salterns harbor a variety of organisms ranging from marine like to extreme halophiles and hypothesized that this restoration might lead to a change in the composition of the saltern's biological communities located near the phosphogypsum landfill. Salterns are, in some regards, well-studied systems (Oren 2005;Elloumi et al 2009), yet aspects associated with anthropogenic impacts, especially from phosphogypsum residues on biological communities, have never before been reported.…”

“…From September 2007 to August 2008, we examined biological communities in four high-salinity lagoons, in order to detect how species richness and abundance compared along the salinity gradient (41-77 psu) during our post-restoration sampling period as opposed to pre-restoration data. Since the potential for niche partitioning based on the salinity gradient is greater for phytoplankton and ciliates than for copepods (Khemakhem et al 2010), we chose this range of salinity so as to allow occurrence of all zooplankton, phytoplankton and ciliates as we have previously shown that within the 77 to below 120 salinity range, the copepod population, for example, would be marked by the presence of only two species namely Bryocamptus sp. and Mesochra lilljeborgi (Khemakhem et al 2010).…”

“…Since the potential for niche partitioning based on the salinity gradient is greater for phytoplankton and ciliates than for copepods (Khemakhem et al 2010), we chose this range of salinity so as to allow occurrence of all zooplankton, phytoplankton and ciliates as we have previously shown that within the 77 to below 120 salinity range, the copepod population, for example, would be marked by the presence of only two species namely Bryocamptus sp. and Mesochra lilljeborgi (Khemakhem et al 2010). Finally, and since very few saltern studies have simultaneously considered many compartments within the plankton community, we attempted to assess, after restoration, the relationships between copepods and their potential prey such as phytoplankton and ciliates, which are currently hypothesized to be advantaged in such systems (Khemakhem et al 2010).…”

“…They have been constructed in many areas worldwide and generally consist of a series of interconnected ponds featuring a salinity gradient ranging from near that of seawater level to a several-fold concentration ensuring a yield of halite used mainly as cooking salt and magnesium-rich bittern brines used to make road salt (Javor 1989, Khemakhem et al 2010). Salterns are also biologically very rich, harboring birds, fish, plants and micro-organisms (Elevi-Bardavid et al 2007;A b i de ta l .2008).…”

Relations of Several Physicochemical Parameters and Phytoplankton in Coastal Kubu Raya District, West Kalimantan

“…Menurut Khemakhem et al (2010), kepadatan dan biomassa tertinggi fitoplankton ditemukan di perairan dengan kadar garam tertinggi dan merupakan faktor penting untuk pertumbuhan fitoplankton. Fitoplankton memanfaatkan cahaya matahari untuk melakukan fotosintesis, sehingga kehidupan fitoplankton berada pada lapisan air dengan cahaya matahari yang cukup (zona eufotik).…”