Environmental Parameters Vs. Plankton Incidents

Environmental parameters Vs Plankton Incidents:
The graphs presented in figureX to figureX, environmental parameters observed at different sites in each area are presented area wise along with the harmful plankton incidents observed. Average temperature, dissolved oxygen and salinity observed each day at each farm site is used to plot these graphs. There has been a notion that with drop in salinity, which means freshwater run off, there would be increase in nutrients and supporting higher plankton growth. But, it is not always true. Upwelling events bring up more nutrients where they can be used (surface layers) compared to fresh water runoff. The reason some plankton grow more when there is freshwater runoff is because of the drop in salinity …show more content…
The same trend has been observed and recorded when studying the bloom dynamics of Heterosigma over the years. In the graphs presented below figureX and figureX the same trend can be observed. In all the plots it can be seen that not always a bloom starts with drop in salinity due to freshwater runoff. But the opposite was observed in the field. Whenever there was drop in temperature and dissolved oxygen which usually means upwelling and if it was coincided with freshwater runoff, there would definitely be a plankton bloom either harmful or non-harmful. In the plots from figureX to figureX below, each plankton species was compared against existing environmental parameters at the time of recorded observations. This comparison is being done for past three years in a row now with each year’s plankton and environmental data. Few observations were made in field and recorded. There is not a particular trend that can be observed with this single year’s data. But when compared against data from few years, more accurate and meaningful conclusions can be drawn on the favorable conditions for each species. The problem being, because of a different data base system used in past where not all the information was …show more content…
As phytoplankton cannot swim, tides play an important role in spreading the harmful plankton around. Knowing which tide was bringing in harmful plankton helps a lot in decision making process of whether to feed or not. This information can make a considerable difference in saving lost feed days. The tide information recorded with plankton data is analyzed against the plankton incidents observed in each area. From the data it can be observed that sampling done on flood tide was considerably more than the sampling done on ebb tide. The tide information which was in text was converted in to numbers for graphing purposes. The plots are presented below from figureX to figureX. In Broughton area, two major plankton events can be seen. The first event which was harmful Chaetoceros, came in on flood tide mostly and then spread in the area. But later event which was Heterosigma bloom happened in the area and came on to sites on ebb tide. Same is also true in Klemtu area. There were two major events, Heterosigma earlier and harmful Chaetoceros later in the season. Heterosigma came on to sites mostly on the ebb tide and harmful Chaetoceros was observed on flood tide mostly. In Port Hardy area, there was one major event, harmful Chaetoceros which was brought in on to sites by flood tide. In Quatsino area, there were Heterosigma, harmful Chaetoceros and