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JPR Advance Access published online on August 20, 2004
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbh131
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Received April 16, 2004
Accepted July 27, 2004

Article

Seasonal variations of bacterial abundance and biomass and their relation to phytoplankton in the hypertrophic tropical lagoon Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, Colombia

Klaus Gocke 1*, Carlos Hernández 2, Hanna Giesenhagen 1, Hansgeorg Hoppe 1

1 Leibniz-Institut Für Meereswissenschaften an der Universität Kiel (IFM-GEOMAR), Düsternbrooker WEG 20, D-24105 Kiel, Germany
2 Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (INVEMAR), APTO AEREO 10016, Santa Marta, Colombia

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kgocke{at}ifm-geomar.de.


  Abstract

The seasonal development of bacteria was studied in the hypertrophic coastal lagoon Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (Caribbean coast of Colombia). This large but only 1.5 m deep lagoon is subject to strong seasonal variations of salinity from almost fully marine (April/May) to brackish conditions in October/November. Chlorophyll ranged from 6 to 182 µg L-1 and gross primary production amounted to 1690 g C m-2 per year. Total bacterial number (TBN) ranged from 6.5 - 90.5 x 109 cells L-1 and bacterial biomass (BBM) from 77 - 1542 µg C L-1, which are among the highest ever reported for natural coastal waters. Neither TBN nor BBM varied significantly with salinity, phytoplankton or seston concentrations. Only the mean bacterial cell volume showed a significant relation to salinity, being highest (0.066 µm3) during the period of increasing and lowest (0.032 µm3) during decreasing salinity. Bacterial protein accounted for 24% (19 - 26%) and phytoplankton protein for 57% (53 - 71%) of total seston protein. The ratio (annual mean) of bacterial carbon/phytoplankton carbon was 0.44 (range 0.04 - 1.43). At low phytoplankton abundance (chl a <25 µg L-1) bacterial carbon was almost equal to phytoplankton biomass (i.e. the mean ratio was 1.04). In contrast, at chl a >100 µg L-1, bacterial biomass was low compared to phytoplankton (the mean ratio was 0.16). In general, bacterial biomass varied less than phytoplankton biomass. Most probably the missing correlation between bacterial and phytoplankton variables was due to a) organic material partly derived from allochthonous sources serving as food resource for bacteria, and b) a strong resuspension of bacteria from the sediment caused by frequent wind induced mixing of the very shallow lagoon.


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