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Email the author (Login required) Phytoplankton community composition in Bahía de Banderas Jalisco-Nayarit, Mexico, during the dry season
Submited: 2024-12-03 21:14:40 | Published: 2025-06-30 18:48:33
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3856/vol53-issue3-fulltext-3370
Abstract
The relationship between environmental variables and the phytoplankton community in the dry season in Bahía de Banderas (BB) was analyzed. Sampling was conducted on the north (NC) and south (SC) coasts of the bay in February 2022. Physicochemical variables, nutrients, and pigments of surface and bottom water were measured, and the phytoplankton community structure was studied. The results showed that the highest temperatures were recorded in NC (23.84 ± 8.65°C). The coldest in SC (20.39 ± 2.26°C), salinity (34.06 ± 0.09), and density (24.08 ± 0.82 kg m-3) were highest in SC, while pH, dissolved oxygen, and its saturation and transparency were higher in NC; furthermore, the highest concentrations of nutrients and pigments were recorded in SC, except chlorophyll-a which was in NC. A total of 214 phytoplankton species were identified: 88 diatoms, 113 dinoflagellates, 6 silicoflagellates, 2 cyanobacteria, and 1 species for ebriids, haptophytes, euglenophytes, chlorophytes, and ciliates, highlighting the presence of 74 harmful species. Likewise, 83 species were new records for the bay. High cell abundances were recorded in SC (980,440 cells L-1) while in NC was 353,160 cells L-1. The diatoms Guinardia striata and Leptocylindrus danicus presented high abundances in the bay with 281,360 and 137,460 cells L-1, and the dinoflagellates Scrippsiella acuminata and Karenia mikimotoi with 80,380 and 55,400 cells L-1, respectively. The environmental variables temperature, salinity, depth, transparency, NH4+, NO2-, SiO2-, and pigments such as chlorophyll-a and chlorophyll-c recorded in this study explained 96.3% of the correlation with the abundance of the phytoplankton community, evidencing the sensitivity of the community to the hydrographic variability that occurs in the BB during the dry season.
