Riina Klais

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Riina Klais

• PhD student (2008-2012)
• Tartu University (Estonia)
• Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences
• Department of Nature and Technology
• Supervisor Kalle Olli

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Baltic Sea phytoplankton in a temporal shift

• Data
• Since 1965, there have been ca 15 000
  phytoplankton samples collected and analyzed
  during national monitoring programs.
• After extremely time consuming work over 40
  years, and recent collection and harmonization of
  those varying data tables from different
  providers, we have 15 000 samples, with
  approximately 500 000 single records in a single
  table for comprehensive analysis of the trends
  and patterns in species composition in the Baltic
  Sea.

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Data providers

• Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Finland
• Finnish Institute of Marine Research (FIMR),
  Finland
• Helsinki city, Finland
• Institute of Aquatic Sciences, Latvia
• Stockholm University, Sweden
• Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde (IOW),
  Germany
• National Environmental Research Institute (NERI),
  Denmark
• Estonian Marine Institute, Estonia
• HELCOM

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Data
Not homogenous spatially Not homogenous in time
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Synthesis

• Exercise no 1
• Diatom / dinoflagellate rivalry in spring blooms.
• It has been suggested, that dinoflagellates are
  taking over spring blooms, and competing out the
  diatoms
• Possible reasons climate change i.e. positive
  NAO indexes, resulting in milder winters, and
  early stratification in spring giving the
  advantage to motile species (Wasmund and Uhlig,
  2003) anthropogenic i.e. decreasing
  concentration of silicate (Danielsson et al,
  2008)?

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Synthesis

• Problem 1 defining the spring samples
• biomass of the sample, timing (varies with
  latitude), proportion of diatoms/dinoflagellates,
  indicator species
• Variable analysed
• ProportionDinophyceae biomassDinophyceae
  /(biomassBacillariophyceae biomassDinophyceae)

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Gulf of Finland
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Bothnian bay and Bothnian Sea
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Northern Baltic Proper Archipelago sea, Gotland
Basin Gulf of Riga
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Southern Baltic Proper, the Sound
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Questions

1. Is the rivalry between dinoflagellates and
   diatoms somehow affected by the climate change
   (NAO, ice cover etc) or chemical properties of
   Baltic Sea (decreasing silica content)?
2. Is it general dinos vs diatoms trend, or, is
   it only one group (suspect is Woloszynskia/Scripp
   siella family), that is colonizing in its own
   specific way new locales (without particular help
   from climate or human impact)?
3. What do we loose/win, if we have dinoflagellates
   instead of diatoms in spring blooms?

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Synthesis

• Exercise no 2
• Late summer species composition.
• Preliminary results indicate, that most important
  factor in PC analysis is always time

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About me

• Scientific interests
• numerical ecology, statistical methods for
  analyzing ecological data
• phytoplankton ecology, drivers for changes in
  species composition and biodiversity in Baltic
  Sea
• BSc (2005) Heterotrophic nanoflagellates in
  microbial food web

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References

• Å. Danielsson, L. Papush, L. Rahm, 2008.
  Alterations in nutrient limitations Scenarios
  of a changing Baltic Sea. Journal of Marine
  Systems, 73 263-283.
• Wasmund, N., Uhlig,S., 2003. Phytoplankton trends
  in the Baltic Sea. ICES Journal of Marine
  Science, 60 177-186.
• Thank you!