DeYoe, H.D. and C.A. Suttle. 1994. The inability of the Texas "Brown Tide" alga to use nitrate and the role of nitrogen in the initiation of a persistent bloom of this organism. Journal of Phycology 30:800-806.

A planktonic alga similar in general morphology and pigments to Aureococcus anophagefferens Hargraves and Sieburth has caused persistent and ecologically damaging blooms along the south Texas coast. Experiments using 100 µM nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium demonstrated that the alga could not use nitrate for growth but could use nitrite and ammonium. Doubling iron or trace metal concentrations did not permit growth on nitrate. Chemical composition data for cultures grown in excess nitrate or ammonium, respectively, were as follows: N/cell (0.88 vs. 1.3 pg), C:N ratio (25:1 vs. 6.4:1), C:chlorophyll a (chl a) (560:1 vs. 44:1), and chl a/cell (0.033 vs. 0.16 pg). These data imply that cells supplied with nitrate were N-starved. Culture addition of 10 mM final concentration chlorate (a nitrate analog) did not affect the Texas isolate while nitrate-utilizing A. anophagefferens was lysed, suggesting that the nitrate reductase of the Texas isolate is nonfunctional. Rates of primary productivity determined during a dense bloom indicated that light-saturated growth rates were ca. 0.45/d, which is similar to maximum rates determined in laboratory experiments (0.58/d plus or minus 0.16). However, chemical composition data were consistent with the growth rate of these cells being limited by N availability (C:N 28, C:chl a 176, chl a/cell 0.019). Calculations based on a mass balance for nitrogen suggest that the bloom was triggered by an input of ca. 69 µM ammonium that resulted from an extensive die-off of benthos and fish.