Investigating Water Quality and Algae-Bacteria Interaction in NJ Coastal Long-Term Monitoring Sites

Derek J. Melendez, Erin Kraus, McKenna R. Fernandini, Shuting Liu   Department of Environmental & Sustainability Sciences, Kean University, Union, NJ 07083   The algae and bacteria interactions in NJ coastal waters impact water quality. Both organisms influence the amount of organic carbon, nutrients, and other essentials that the ocean contains.  In the summer, algal blooms usually occur in NJ coastal waters while in the winter there is less algae biomass due to lower temperature. In this study, our main question was to find out what were the environmental factors that affect the water quality and how algal and bacteria interactions played their part in that. We collected surface water in two long-monitoring stations in Barnegat Bay, NJ over the spring-summer of 2023 and winter of 2024 and analyzed inorganic nutrients, chlorophyll, dissolved organic carbon/nitrogen, and bacteria. Temperature and dissolved oxygen have an inverse relationship throughout the time.  Chlorophyll concentrations were significantly higher at one station in the spring-summer than in the winter, but not at the other. Significantly lower concentrations of nitrate+nitrite and phosphate in the spring-summer suggest algal took up these nutrients. Dissolved organic carbon concentrations were not significantly different over the season, however, dissolved organic nitrogen was significantly higher in spring-summer, corresponding to higher bacterial abundance at the same time and indicating nitrogen-rich dissolved organic matter supported bacterial growth. We concluded that investigating the interaction among environmental factors is a must to understand the conditions of coastal waters and that they are inter-correlated with each other in our coastal waters.  

Presentation Preference: Poster

Primary Presenter: derek melendez, kean university (derekmelendez173@gmail.com)

Authors:

derek melendez, kean university  (meledere@kean.edu)

Shuting Liu, Kean University  (liushut@kean.edu)

erin kraus, kean university  (krauser@kean.edu)

mckenna fernandini, kean university  (ernanmc@kean.edu)