De Cauwer, K.

Goffin, A.

Lagring, R.

Nohe, A

Sabbe, K.

Tyberghein, L

Vyverman, W.

Open Marine Archive

 23 
The impact of decades of human-induced environmental change on 
phytoplankton communities in the Belgian part of the North Sea 
Nohe Anja
1
, Goffin Annelies
2
, Tyberghein Lennert
2
, Lagring Ruth
3
, De Cauwer Karien
3
, Vyverman Wim
3
 
and Sabbe Koen
3 
1
  Laboratory of Protistology & Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Ghent, 
Krijgslaan 281 (S8), 9000 Gent, Belgium 
 E-mail: Anja.Nohe@UGent.be 
2 
Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), InnovOcean site, Wandelaarkaai 7, 8400 Ostend, Belgium 
3
  Belgian Marine Data Center (BMDC), Operational Directorate Natural Environment, Royal Belgian 
Institute of Natural Sciences, Gulledelle 100, 1200 Brussels, Belgium 
 
Long-term marine phytoplankton monitoring programs are essential for detecting trends and changes 
in biomass and species composition of marine communities in the context of climate change and 
other anthropogenic impacts (e.g. eutrophication and modified nutrient cycles). Even though the 
importance of marine phytoplankton as marine primary producers is known for a long time, a 
structural marine phytoplankton monitoring program of the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) was 
only implemented in the 2000s in the framework of the European LifeWatch infrastructure. However, 
since the 1960s phytoplankton research has been conducted in the course of several smaller research 
projects. In the BRAIN project 4DEMON (4 decades of Belgian marine monitoring), an initiative to 
recover and integrate (historical) marine biodiversity and environmental data in the BPNS, we 
compiled, standardized and analyzed all available phytoplankton diversity and biomass data since 
the 1970s, with a focus on diatoms and dinoflagellates. 
 
A comparison of diatom and dinoflagellate communities between the 1970s and the 2000s revealed 
significant changes, including a pronounced increase in both diatom and dinoflagellate abundance 
(especially during winter for diatoms) and shifts in spring bloom phenology (with an earlier start of 
the diatom spring bloom and the emergence of a pronounced dinoflagellate summer bloom). These 
changes are probably a result of complex bottom-up and top-down interactions. By looking into 
various environmental datasets, such as historical abiotic data measured in the BPNS (4DEMON), the 
LifeWatch measurements, the French (SRN – Regional Observation and Monitoring program for 
Phytoplankton and Hydrology in the eastern English Channel) and the Dutch long-term monitoring 
(conducted by the Rijkswaterstaat (RWS)), we hypothesize that the changes may be partly related to a 
combination of increasing (winter) water temperatures and changing nutrient ratios. 
 
Keywords: phytoplankton time-series; diatoms; dinoflagellates; Belgian part of the North Sea; 
phytoplankton seasonality  


The impact of decades of human-induced environmental change on phytoplankton communities in the Belgian part of the North Sea

http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/311850.pdf

The impact of decades of human-induced environmental change on phytoplankton communities in the Belgian part of the North Sea

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