Title:

Temporal variability in the nutritional quality of estuarine plankton

The temporal variability of plankton is well documented, particularly in constantly changing tidal systems such as estuaries, but the extent to which this variability applies to plankton nutritional quality is less well known. As the base of the aquatic food web, variation in phytoplankton nutritional quality stands to constrain fishery production, particularly of filter-feeders. Here we collected community and nutritional data from Great Bay, NH, a model estuary, over seasonal, tidal, and daily time scales to identify the range and variability of nutritional quality in plankton. Bulk spectrophotometric lipid (neutral and polar) and protein measurements were compared to plankton community composition data (using flow cytometry and FlowCam) to provide insights into the nutritional quality of the plankton community. All metrics sampled, including chlorophyll a concentration and plankton community composition, exhibited high variability over both weekly and seasonal time scales. Interestingly, concentrations of lipids and proteins did not significantly correlate with chlorophyll a, suggesting that shifts in bulk nutritional quality are disconnected from trends in community composition. These findings provide management-relevant information about the suitability of estuarine systems for aquaculture of filter-feeders and indicate that an understanding of the plankton community is essential for proper management of fisheries.

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