Overwintering strategies of bloom-forming Ulva species in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA

Shelby Rinehart; Michele Guidone; Amanda Ziegler; Tanja Schollmeier; Carol Thornber

doi:10.1515/bot-2013-0122

Article

Overwintering strategies of bloom-forming Ulva species in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA

Shelby Rinehart , Michele Guidone , Amanda Ziegler , Tanja Schollmeier and Carol Thornber

Published/Copyright: June 7, 2014

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From the journal Botanica Marina Volume 57 Issue 4

Abstract

Temperate coastal estuaries worldwide, such as Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, are influenced by seasonal macroalgal blooms (e.g., Ulva) during warm months, whereas bloom-forming macroalgae are rarely encountered during winter. We assessed the ability of distromatic Ulva to overwinter through fragments, recruits, and/or microscopic propagules. We documented (a) small tissue fragments in sediment cores and the water column, (b) recruits and microscopic propagules on field-based settlement tiles, and (c) production of reproductive propagules, throughout the winter months. Laboratory culturing experiments indicated that both fragments and propagules are viable. Our data indicate that bloom-forming overwintering Ulva simultaneously use multiple reproductive strategies.

Keywords: macroalgal bloom; overwintering; propagules; Ulva

Corresponding author: Carol Thornber, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA, e-mail: thornber@uri.edu

aPresent address: Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USAbPresent address: Department of Biology, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT 06492, USAcPresent address: Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USAdPresent address: Department of Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank A. Battocletti, E. Bishop, E. Potter, M. McConville, and M. Wands for their help in the field. Funding was provided by the University of Rhode Island Undergraduate Research Initiative and the Stan Cobb Endowment for Marine Biology. This material is based, in part, on work supported in part by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR Cooperative Agreement #EPS-1004057 and the State of Rhode Island. The manuscript was substantially improved by comments from M. Dring and an anonymous reviewer.

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Received: 2013-12-20

Accepted: 2014-5-7

Published Online: 2014-6-7

Published in Print: 2014-8-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/bot-2013-0122

Keywords for this article

macroalgal bloom; overwintering; propagules; Ulva