Impact of anoxia and oyster mortality on nutrient and microbial planktonic components: A mesocosm study

• Published in: Aquaculture
• Main Authors: Le Ray, Julie, Bec, Béatrice, Fiandrino, Annie, Lagarde, Franck, Cimiterra, Nicolas, Raimbault, Patrick, Roques, Cécile, Rigaud, Sylvain, Régis, Julie, Mostajir, Behzad, Mas, Sébastien, Richard, Marion
• Other Authors: MARine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation (UMR MARBEC), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM), Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie (MIO), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Toulon (UTLN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre d'Ecologie marine expérimentale (MEDIMEER), Université Montpellier 2 - Sciences et Techniques (UM2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Oxygen; Phytoplankton; Anoxia; Community shift; Microbial loop; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; Crassostrea gigas
• Online Access: https://hal.umontpellier.fr/hal-03936612; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2022.739171

International audience The Thau lagoon is a Mediterranean coastal lagoon used for shellfish farming. It is periodically affected by anoxia events that trigger oyster mortality. To investigate the effects of an anoxia event focussed on nutrient dynamics and the responses of the microbial planktonic communities a 13-day in situ experiment was performed in September 2020. Transparent mesocosms (270 L) were placed at a depth of 4 m, inserted in the sediment, and kept closed throughout the experiment. The experiment comprised three treatments: i) Natural environment (N), i.e. in the natural water outside the mesocosms containing a rope of 30 oysters (Crassostrea gigas), ii) Control mesocosm (C) filled with natural water with no oysters, and iii) Oyster mesocosm (O) filled with natural water containing a rope of 30 oysters. Oyster respiration in the oyster mesocosm depleted oxygen after 54 h. All the oysters from O mesocosm were dead after nine days and decomposition of their flesh combined with releases from the water-sediment interface increased dissolved inorganic nitrogen (dominated by ammonium), phosphates, and ∑H2S up to 390, 17 and 295 μmol·L−1, respectively. Phytoplankton biomass consequently increased by 20 (11.8 μg chlal −1) and abundance by 4.5 (186 × 106 cells·L1) dominated largely by green algae \textless5 μm. During the oyster mortality period (day 6 to day 9) high abundances of heterotrophic flagellates and large ciliate specimens were observed. This shift in the community towards small phytoplankton favours the microbial loop and is detrimental to shellfish farming. In a context of global warming in which the risk of anoxia is higher, the results of the present investigation demonstrate that anoxia triggers shellfish mortality and that the change in the plankton community disrupts the normal functioning of the ecosystem, causing serious financial losses. In this context, it is crucial to predict possible hypoxia and anoxia events using high frequency measurements of dissolved oxygen, by avoiding ...