Temporal abundance patterns of the red tide dinoflagellte Noctiluca scintillans along the southeast coast of Australia

摘要

Noctiluca scintillans was seasonally abundant during the austral spring and summer with typical values of 16 cells 1~1, but depleted in autumn and winter, with values of < 1 cell l~-1. Peaks in abundance of up to 79 cells l~-1 were observed, at the same time or subsequent to diatom blooms which were caused by episodic uplifting events during the spring and summer. The diatom blooms were dominated by the small centric diatom Thalassiosira partheneia, which was also the dominant food item found within the Noctiluca cells. A high proportion(> 80/100)of Noctiluca cells contained food particles in heir vacuoles during the diatom blooms, suggesting that the increase in abundance of Noctiluca was most likely stimulated by food availability.