Dynamics and biodiversity of the microphytoplankton assemblages in the Gulf of Taranto (Ionian Sea).

Coastal marine environments are characterized by high hydrological variability due to the allochthnous inputs too. Such a variability strongly influences not only light availability and supply of nutrients but also dynamics and biodiversity of the phytoplankton assemblages. Two sites characterized by diffferent levels of anthropogenic contamination were choosen to study the features of microphytoplankton in the Gulf of Taranto (ionian Sea). Our results indicate that microphytoplankton cell abundances and species composition were very different in the two considered study sites. A wide variability of the diversity indexes was also detected, suggesting that eutrophic consdition and contamintation level might alter the interactions between the phtoplanktonic species and their evolution.