C'erra Tubbs

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Toro-Farmer, Gerardo

Area of Concentration

Marine Biology

Abstract

Phytoplankton are known to be very responsive to environmental variables and changes such as temperature and salinity. There are many intersections between all these understudied variables. Here, I show the intersectionalities of different phytoplankton groups and their abundances among various environmental conditions and ecological patterns. Phytoplankton were collected and analyzed in January and July 2023 from two separate locations: Sarasota Bay and Lido Beach. Collections were also done from two separate depths. Dinoflagellates and diatoms responded differently to seasonal changes. Dinoflagellates were more sensitive to temperature changes, with clear differences between seasons, while diatoms were more adaptable to changes with a greater overlap of distributions. Dinoflagellates were the overall lowest presenting group with only 4.04% contribution to the overall abundance. Diatoms were the most abundant with six genera being able to be identified and accumulating over 86% of the abundance accounting for the separately identified genera. Skeletonema was the identified genus with the highest abundance, taking up to 16.88% of the total phytoplankton abundance. There were slight general trends among all phytoplankton across the investigated variables, with a slight preference for summer conditions across all groups, as well as a preference for lower depths in seagrass beds. They also showed more favor for the Lido Beach sampling sites.

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