Nutrient Uptake Kinetics in Two Virginia Estuaries

Recently, there has been an increase in the occurrence and geographical range of blooms of the brown tide pelagophyte Aureococcus anophagefferens in coastal areas along the east coast of the USA. Brown tide blooms occur when concentrations of inorganic nutrients are low or at the limit of analytical detection and these organisms have been shown to use organic nitrogen for growth. Indeed, it has been suggested that A. anophagefferens, along with a variety of other species that form harmful algal blooms, have a preference for organic nitrogen and because organic nitrogen compounds also have carbon, it is thought that many bloom species may supplement photosynthetic carbon fixation with uptake of organic carbon. In order to better understand the nutritional preferences of bloom organisms, we investigated uptake kinetics for inorganic and organic nutrients in two Virginia waterways where harmful algal blooms frequently occur; the Rappahannock River, a Chesapeake Bay tributary that experiences blooms of dinoflagellates, and Chincoteague Bay, a coastal bay where there are seasonal brown tide blooms. We used stable isotopes (¹⁵N and 13C) to measure uptake kinetics for NH₄⁺, urea, two amino acids, a dipeptide and glucose. During the Chincoteague Bay study, there was a bloom of A. anophagefferens (> 1,000,000 cells/ml), however, no blooms were encountered during the Rappahannock Study. Results suggest that brown tide bloom populations had higher affinities and uptake capacities for NH₄⁺ and dipeptides and lower affinities and uptake capacities for urea and the two amino acids. In addition, it appeared that the organic substrates were used primarily as N sources.