Short-term variability of microphytobenthic primary production associated with in situ diel and tidal conditions

The short-term variability in microphytobenthos (MPB) production, measured by the oxygen microprofiling method, found under different experimental conditions indicated an endogenous production response reflecting in situ diel and tidal conditions. MPB production was measured for submerged core samples (collected from Daebu mudflat, Korea) at a fixed irradiance and temperature in the laboratory under the conditions of (1) constant light (data-I), (2) light–dark incubation (data-II), and (3) in situ reflected (data-III). The experimental design aimed to characterize within-day, across-day, and long term changes in MPB production. Our results showed that, under constant light conditions for 72 h, temporal fluctuations in MPB production (day:night = 2.4:1) were clearly present for three consecutive days (data-I), indicating a diel rhythm in production. Production increased at the beginning of light exposure, and dramatically decreased at the time of submersion, indicating tide-dependent rhythm in production. Furthermore, over a 10 d period under the same light and temperature conditions, a weakening (declining) trend in production was observed, which was logarithmic with diel fluctuation (r2 = 0.995, p < 0.01). This diel rhythm in production was also observed under an alternating light–dark (L14 h/D10 h) incubation period across an additional 18 d of measurement (data-II). The decline in production was slower, and more linear (r2 = 0.930, p < 0.01) under this condition, as the period of dark incubation (D10 h) seemed to allow the community to recover to a certain level of production. Finally, the effects of tidal condition (spring tide vs. neap tide) and biomass (dense vs. lesser dense) on the short-term (<hourly) variability of MPB production (data-III) appeared to be negligible when time integrated the production.