Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Phytoplankton Mortality In An Urban Pond: Understanding The Roles Of Abiotic Factors, Grazing Pressure And Allelopathy, Lauren J. Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

Phytoplankton are found in dynamic aquatic environments, subjected to variations in abiotic (i.e., light, temperature, nutrients) and biotic (i.e., grazing, species interactions) conditions. Phytoplankton responses to these environmental variations are typically observed as changes in chlorophyll a (a surrogate for biomass), but such measurements do not provide information about individual taxa and cannot provide information about cell condition, for example, whether phytoplankton are living or dead. Furthermore, in examining the dynamics of phytoplankton, emphasis is placed on growth, but consideration of loss processes is usually limited to grazing and sedimentation, and not cell death The present study examined cell death …