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JPR Advance Access published online on February 2, 2006
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi127
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received March 25, 2005
Accepted January 30, 2006

Article

Relationship between the bloom of Noctiluca scintillans and environmental factors in the coastal waters of Sagami Bay, Japan

Hideo Miyaguchi 1 *, Tetsuichi Fujiki 2, Tomohiko Kikuchi 3, Victor S. Kuwahara 4, and Tatsuki Toda 1

1 Department of Ecological Engineering for Symbiosis, Faculty of Engineering, Soka University Tangi-cho, Hachiouji, Tokyo 192-8577, Japan
2 Mutsu Institute for Oceanography Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology 690 Kitasekine Sekine, Mutsu, Aomori 035-0022, Japan
3 Department of Hydrographic Science, Faculty of Education and Human Sciences Yokohama National University, Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan
4 Faculty of Education, Soka University Tangi-cho, Hachiouji, Tokyo 192-8577, Japan

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Hideo Miyaguchi, E-mail: hmiyaguc{at}soka.ac.jp


  Abstract

In order to study the mechanism of the bloom formation of Noctiluca scintillans, the relationship between the variation in the abundance of N. scintillans and environmental factors was examined in the coastal waters of Sagami Bay, Japan. Hydrographic (temperature, salinity, water stability), biological (chlorophyll a concentration, zooplankton biomass) and meteorological (rainfall, wind velocity, wind direction) factors were investigated from 1997 to 2004. For all years, the abundance of N. scintillans started to increase from March and reached a maximum in spring between April and May. The abundance in 1997 and 2000 was relatively high compared to the other years while the abundance in 1998 and 2004 was relatively low. A stepwise multiple linear regression analysis showed that the wind direction and rainfall were significantly correlated with the variation in the abundance of N. scintillans. Our results suggest that bloom formation can be separated into a three-step process; 1) initial increase in the abundance of N. scintillans attributed to an increase in optimum hydrographic and biological factors, 2) N. scintillans are then accumulated by convergence of seawater by the factors of low rainfall and wind, and 3) swarmer-effects suggested enhance bloom formation. Accumulation is considered to be a key trigger in this process of the formation of large-scale blooms.

Communicating Editor: KJ Flynn

This paper was presented at Plankton Symposium III, held at Figuera da Foz, Portugal between 17 and 20 March 2005, under the auspices of the University of Coimbra and the University of Aveiro, and coordinated by Mário Jorge Pereira and Ulisses M. Azeiteiro.


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