Elevated organic nutrient ratios associated with brown tide algal blooms of Aureococcus anophagefferens (Pelagophyceae)

Natural assemblages of Aureococcus anophagefferens collected from the coastal bays of Maryland and Long Island, New York occurred under water quality conditions higher in dissolved organic carbon and phosphorus (relative to nitrogen) than those same stations when Aureococcus was not present in significant numbers. Additional work, both in culture and in the field, confirmed the importance of a heterotrophic nutritional mode in this brown tide organism.