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Phytoplankton of Lebanon [Phytoplancton Marin du Liban]
Citation
Sami Lakkis (2011). Phytoplancton Marin du Liban ( Méditerranée Orientale): Biologie, Biodiversité, Biogeographie. Aracne Editrice, Rome, Italy, 296 p. https://marineinfo.org/id/dataset/2953
Contact: Lakkis, Sami

Access data
Archived data
Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Description
During the last 40 years of survey in the Lebanese seawaters and the Levantine Basin, we identified and described about 400 species, belonging to 85 genera, including 230 dinoflagellates and 156 diatoms, 10 Silicoflagellates and 4 Ebriidae, many of them are introduced or migrated from Red Sea and Indian Ocean into the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal pathway. more

Marine phytoplankton include all pelagic microalgae that float in the water and represent the primary producers of organic substances and oxygen in the pelagic environment. Because of photosynthetic pigments stored in the chloroplasts of cells and depending to the natural light energy penetrating in the seawater, these algae can produce photosynthesis and synthesize basic organic substances to living marine organisms. Marine algae are highly diversified in the world ocean. During the last 40 years of survey in the Lebanese seawaters and the Levantine Basin, we identified and described about 400 species, belonging to 85 genera, including 230 dinoflagellates and 156 diatoms, 10 Silicoflagellates and 4 Ebriidae, many of them are introduced or migrated from Red Sea and Indian Ocean into the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal pathway. These species show monthly and seasonal qualitative and quantitative distributions, with spring flowering (bloom) marking the maximum of standing crop reaching sometimes one million of cells/l-1 corresponding to about 1 mg of chlorophyll-a /m-3 of seawater. Geographic distribution as well as vertical and seasonal variations of populations depend on several hydro-climatic and physical-chemical factors. Chemical nutrients such as phosphates, nitrates and silicates, constitute determinant factors for the sustainable development of microalgae. On the other hand, the water temperature, salinity and water mass movement are major factors in the spatio-temporal distribution of the species. During winter (December-March) the upwelling and seawater mass mixing create homothermal conditions suitable for the development of cells to reach spring bloom. Inversely, during the summer hot season (June-October), the warming surface seawater and the heavy évaporation intensity, generate the stratification of water layers accompanied with sharp thermocline in the layer 100-0 m. These hydrological conditions, in addition to the shortage of nutrients concentration and dissolved oxygen may create impoverishment in the quality and quantity of the plankton community. Furthermore, this annual cycle is regular from year to year showing little fluctuations. The Levantine Basin, including the Lebanese sector constitute oligotrophic water body, the poorest in the entire Mediterranean. This oligotrophy induce impoverishment in marine resources and thus a low fishery production, despite of high marine biodiversity.

Scope
Themes:
Biology > Plankton > Phytoplankton
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, Biodiversity, Introduced species, EurOBIS calculated BBOX, MED, Eastern Mediterranean, Bacillariophyceae, Dinoflagellata

Geographical coverage
EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box
Coordinates: MinLong: 35,4333; MinLat: 33,9167 - MaxLong: 35,5833; MaxLat: 34,4833 [WGS84]
MED, Eastern Mediterranean [Marine Regions]

Temporal coverage
15 October 1967 - 25 November 2007

Taxonomic coverage
Bacillariophyceae [WoRMS]
Dinoflagellata [WoRMS]

Parameter
Abundance

Contributors
Lebanese University; Faculty of sciences, moredata managerdata ownerdata creator

Related datasets
Published in:
EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more
MedOBIS: Mediterranean Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more
Other relation:
Zooplankton of Lebanon, more

Publication
Based on this dataset
Lakkis, S. (2007). Dataset and database biodiversity of plankton community in Lebanese seawater (Levantine Basin, East Mediterranean), in: Vanden Berghe, E. et al. (Ed.) Proceedings Ocean Biodiversity Informatics: International Conference on Marine Biodiversity Data Management, Hamburg, Germany 29 November to 1 December, 2004. VLIZ Special Publication, 37: pp. 99-112, more
Lakkis, S. (2004). Plankton dataset from Lebanese seawater, in: Ocean Biodiversity Informatics, Hamburg, Germany: 29 November to 1 December 2004: book of abstracts. pp. 75, more
Lakkis, S.; Novel-Lakkis, V. (2000). Distribution of phytobenthos along the coast of Lebanon (Levantine Basin, East Mediterranean) Medit. Mar. Sci. 1(2): 143-164, more
Describing this dataset
Lakkis, S. (2011). Le phytoplancton marin du Liban (Méditerranée orientale): Biologie, biodiversité, biogéographie. Aracne: Roma. ISBN 978-88-548-4243-4. 293 pp., more

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Monitoring: field survey
Metadatarecord created: 2012-02-06
Information last updated: 2020-12-17
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy