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Abstract
This study examines whether plankton of the Lagoon of Venice could be considered as a bio-indicator of areas subjected to
various anthropogenic inuences. This study was a two year hydrochemical and biological survey in ve areas of the Lagoon of
Venice, each with dierent environmental conditions due to pollution from urban, industrial, thermal and agricultural wastes.
Phytoplankton associations did not show any promising species. In the dierent lagoonal areas, this community was dierentiated
into its major groups. In contrast, the copepod Acartia tonsa Dana could be considered as a target species in highly eutrophic areas.
2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Anthropogenic pollution; Hydrology; Nutrients; Plankton; Bio-indicators; Lagoon of Venice
1. Introduction
In brackish-water ecosystems, planktonic populations are well-known to be inuenced by spacetime
variations in hydrochemical parameters and tidal dynamics (UNESCO, 1981; Cloern et al., 1989). Anthropogenic activities often generate further eects (Campesan
et al., 1981; Sorokin et al., 1996; Collavini et al., 2001),
which also interfere to a greater or lesser extent with the
ecosystem. The Lagoon of Venice receives several types
of inputs: urban, industrial and thermal euents, and
agricultural run-o (Perin, 1975; Cironi et al., 1993;
Collavini et al., 2001). These have produced signicant
variations in the trophic state of the ecosystem in
question, sometimes accompanied by alterations in
specic biological populations. As regards plankton,
algal blooms have been described in the central and
northern basins of the Lagoon (Voltolina, 1973; Alberighi et al., 1992; Socal et al., 1999), while one species of
zooplankton (Acartia tonsa Dana) has undergone explosive increases in numbers, especially in the innermost
areas of the Lagoon (Comaschi and Cavalloni, 1995;
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-41-2404756; fax: +39-415204126.
E-mail address: bianchi@ibm.ve.cnr.it (F. Bianchi).
0025-326X/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0025-326X(03)00111-5
965
3. Results
3.1. Hydrology, nutrients and particulate matter
Water transparency was minimal at station 1 (S. Giuliano) and at station 5 (Palude); this was attributed
respectively to freshwater inputs and intense shipping
movement which cause resuspension of bottom sediments (st. 1) and to draining caused by tides on
boundary shoals (st. 5). Maximum transparency was
found at coastal station 4 (Lido; Table 1). The inuence
of warm wastewater was observed at station 3 (Fusina),
due to the proximity of the thermo-electric power plant,
and station 2 (Marghera), located along the same main
channel (Table 1). As regards salinity, diluted waters
were found mainly at S. Giuliano, Fusina and Palude,
due to the presence of freshwater channels draining
water from inland (Table 1). Lido and Marghera had
typically marine-coastal salinity value (respective averages 32.8 and 29.2 PSU, with a range of 22.636.2
PSU).
Dissolved oxygen saturation percentages were on
average higher at Marghera (118%), with peaks exceeding 170% in summer 1998, when phytoplankton
blooms occurred. Fusina had values around 100%,
similar to results found during previous studies (Bianchi
et al., 1996). At S. Giuliano, oxygenation was on average under saturation levels (range 67141%; Table 1),
probably due to the resuspension of anoxic sediments,
caused by shipping, and/or to the degradation processes
of suspended organic matter present in great quantity.
Concentrations of dissolved nutrients stayed at low
levels at Lido (Table 1), whereas loads were signicantly
greater in the innermost areas. The terrigenous origin of
orthosilicates was evident at S. Giuliano and Palude
(means higher than 50 lM). Total dissolved inorganic
nitrogen (DIN, as sum of ammonium, nitrite and nitrate) showed peaks corresponding to the areas subjected to industrial, urban and agricultural wastes, DIN
values being very high at Fusina, Marghera, S. Giuliano
and Palude (Table 1). The nitrate form always prevailed,
with mean percentages varying between 60% (S. Giuliano) and 79% (Lido); ammonia ranged between 17%
(Lido and Palude) and 35% (S. Giuliano). Similarly,
orthophosphates were higher in the industrial (Marghera) and urban (S. Giuliano) areas, where an absolute
966
Table 1
Means (avg) and standard deviations (SD) of parameters observed (number of observations 30)
Parameters
Stations
S. Giuliano (st. 1)
Transparency (m)
Temperature (C)
Salinity (PSU)
Dissolved oxygen (cm3 dm3 )
Relative oxygen (%)
DIN (lM)
SiSiO4 (lM)
PPO4 (lM)
POC (lg dm3 )
PN (lg dm3 )
Chlorophyll a (lg dm3 )
Total phytoplankton
(cell dm3 103 )
Diatoms (cell dm3 103 )
Dinoagellates (cell dm3 103 )
Microagellates (cell dm3 103 )
Total zooplankton (ind m3 )
Copepods (ind m3 )
Cladocerans (ind m3 )
Marghera (st. 2)
Fusina (st. 3)
Lido (st. 4)
Palude (st. 5)
Avg
SD
Avg
SD
Avg
SD
Avg
SD
Avg
SD
0.5
17.5
21.2
5.7
95.0
59.1
54.3
1.6
1730.6
300.9
18.2
8405
0.3
7.4
5.3
1.4
17.0
37.2
41.2
0.9
1074.3
203.7
17.6
13,090
1.5
19.2
29.2
6.3
118.0
50.0
31.0
1.4
821.2
149.7
14.3
7801
0.5
6.9
2.2
1.1
29.3
35.8
36.3
1.6
590.3
120.8
15.5
10,460
0.8
22.3
27.0
5.5
104.6
62.4
28.9
1.1
815.2
122.3
6.3
3107
0.4
5.6
3.8
0.8
8.0
39.3
14.8
0.5
347.5
61.6
7.6
3220
3.0
17.1
32.8
6.0
107.9
19.7
22.5
0.2
324.9
53.0
2.0
1364
1.4
7.1
1.9
0.8
11.4
11.0
39.9
0.1
145.9
25.6
1.3
1352
0.5
17.2
24.2
6.7
113.8
56.9
53.4
0.4
699.4
117.4
5.3
4004
0.1
8.4
4.3
1.3
21.7
54.2
44.6
0.4
455.7
83.8
5.2
6431
6238
120
2014
3562
3429
3
12,175
226
1914
5098
5023
6
3446
183
4054
308
274
1
5722
337
9223
390
351
2
1627
33
1308
1182
1053
10
1779
74
1538
2009
1898
25
750
22
579
1910
1346
265
1099
29
492
2603
2008
476
2372
16
1558
1380
1277
26
6067
31
1842
2353
2315
36
stations, highlighting how the contribution of the biogenic detritus to organic particulates was high.
3.2. Phyto- and zooplankton abundances and taxonomy
The phytoplankton component revealed abundances
which were on average higher at S. Giuliano and
Marghera (Table 1, Fig. 2); the minimum of 124 103
cell dm3 was found at Lido.
The interannual variability of phytoplankton appeared
very high everywhere, being abundance trends quite
heterogeneous in time and space (Fig. 2). Qualitatively,
phytoplankton was mainly composed of diatoms (mean
Fig. 2. Phytoplankton: mean abundances of the main groups, with standard deviations (left), and time trends of total community (right).
7
S. Giuliano
967
Marghera
st. 5
Fusina
Lido
Palude
5
st. 1
st. 4
st. 3
st. 2
2
spring
summer
fall
winter
Lido, where the congener Acartia clausi had higher numerical abundances (Fig. 4); (iv) time trends closely
followed temperature trends (Fig. 4), both as regards
total zooplankton and its major constituent, A. tonsa;
(v) while the typical high trophic state of Marghera indicated that zooplankton abundances should have been
high, observed values were far lower, only reaching a
mean of 308 ind m3 and a peak of 1644 ind m3 .
3.3. Statistical analyses
In order to highlight relations existing between environmental parameters and biological populations, the
data set of 14 variables, for a total of 136 samples, was
statistically processed.
To order the variables, a principal components
analysis (PCA R-mode) was applied, resulting in a series
Fig. 4. Zooplankton: mean abundances and standard deviations of the main species (left) and time trends of total community (right).
968
Table 2
Principal component analysis: eigenvalues for the rst and second
main components
Parameters
I component
II component
Transparency
Temperature
Salinity
Relative oxygen
NNH3
NNO2
NNO3
SiSiO4
PPO4
POC
PN
Chlorophyll a
Phytoplankton
Zooplankton
)0.398
0.706
)0.312
0.280
)0.065
0.049
)0.312
)0.240
0.111
0.868
0.898
0.924
0.850
0.505
0.510
0.367
0.748
0.537
)0.742
)0.836
)0.707
)0.531
)0.764
)0.136
)0.096
0.018
0.036
0.367
component I
1
0.8
salinity
0.6
transparency
group A
relative oxyg.
zoo temperature
0.4
group B
0.2
phyto
chl
PN
POC
-0.2
-0.4
SiO4
-0.6
NO3
NH3
-0.8
group C
PO
NO2 4
-1
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
componentII
2
4
4 4
444 44 4
2
4 4
5 5 5 2
4
2
4 4444 4 4 4 4
5
2
2
5
4 4 4 4
22 355 2
23 5 5 2
35
4
3
5
3
3
5
53 1 33 5
3
4
2 3 33 2
3
5
2 12 5 3 2
5
1
5
5
3
5
5
2
2
5
3
52
3 23 5
1
3
3
5
1
12
1
1
2
1
1
3
1
2
3
5 21
23
13
1
1
12 5 5
1
1
5
1
group B
4
component I
0
-1
-2
-3
-2
-1
group C
group A
1
1
1
1
1
component II
Fig. 5. Principal components analysis: ordination model, with rotation of Varimax axes, of variables (above) and stations (below), in plane of rst
two principal components. Three main groups (A, B and C) are identied.
969
Table 3
Ridge regression analysis
Dependent variables
Phytoplankton
F 8:578, df 5, 136, p 6 0:0001
Temperature
0.263
Salinity
0:150
DIN
0:100
Silicates
)0.080
Copepods
F 7:375, df 4, 139, p 6 0:0001
Temperature
0.197
Salinity
0.026
POC
0.085
PN
0.118
Acartia clausi
F 2:314, df 4, 139, p not sign:
Temperature
0.106
Salinity
0.109
POC
)0.480
PN
0.287
Acartia tonsa
F 18:355, df 4, 139, p 6 0:0001
Temperature
0.261
Salinity
)0.050
POC
0.136
PN
0.158
Phosphates
0.042
F -test values, degrees of freedom (df) and signicance levels (p) shown for each dependent variable (left). Bold type: variables with coecient values
signicantly correlated with respective dependent variables.
observations at Fusina and Palude. These results indicate that temperature and salinity are the main factors
contributing to the distribution of plankton in the Lagoon of Venice. This is shown by: (i) the cycle of both
phyto- and zooplankton, found abundantly in less
transparent and less salty waters, is linked to temperature; (ii) nutrients in diluted, colder and less transparent
waters make up a separate group.
However, the set of variables making up environmental characterization often do not act independently,
generating self-correlation phenomena: to avoid this,
some authors recommend applying a ridge regression
analysis (Draper and Smith, 1981), the results of which
are shown in Table 3. Interesting conrmations and
observations derived from it include: (i) phytoplankton
depends positively on temperature, again demonstrating
the seasonality of its cycle, and negatively on salinity
and DIN, showing the greater anity for diluted waters
and its uptake towards this nutrient; (ii) zooplankton:
the main group of copepods is only sensitive to temperature, a parameter which heavily inuences its lifecycle (however, not all species belonging to this group
behave in the same way); (iii) A. clausi does not appear
to depend either on fundamental hydrological variables
or on organic particulates, which do not constitute its
preferential source of food; (iv) instead, A. tonsa is
heavily dependent on temperature and, as a trophic resource, on organic particulates.
970
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Marco Marin and Mauro
Penzo for their help given during samplings. Mrs. Gabriel Walton for the English version of the text. This
work was made possible thanks to funding by EC program LIFE-WATERS.
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