Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Phytoplankton Response To Intrusions Of Slope Water On The West Florida Shelf: Models And Observations, John J. Walsh, Robert H. Weisberg, Dwight A. Dieterle, Ruoying He, Brian P. Darrow, Jason K. Jolliff, Kristen M. Lester, Gabriel A. Vargo, Gary J. Kirkpatrick, Kent A. Fanning, Tracey Sutton, Ann E. Jochens, Douglas C. Biggs, Bisman Nababan, Chuanmin Hu, Frank E. Muller-Karger

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Previous hypotheses had suggested that upwelled intrusions of nutrient-rich Gulf of Mexico slope water onto the West Florida Shelf (WFS) led to formation of red tides of Karenia brevis. However, coupled biophysical models of (1) wind- and buoyancy-driven circulation, (2) three phytoplankton groups (diatoms, K. brevis, and microflagellates), (3) these slope water supplies of nitrate and silicate, and (4) selective grazing stress by copepods and protozoans found that diatoms won in one 1998 case of no light limitation by colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). The diatoms lost to K. brevis during another CDOM case of the models. In …