Li, Z.-W. and Cui, L.T., 2018. Phytoplankton community response to coastal engineering construction in the Caofeidian Sea, China. In: Ashraf, M.A. and Chowdhury, A.J.K. (eds.), Coastal Ecosystem Responses to Human and Climatic Changes throughout Asia.

To explore the response process of phytoplankton communities to coastal construction in the Caofeidian Sea (China), data on phytoplankton composition, abundance, and biodiversity were analyzed by contrastive and similarity analyses for 2003 (preconstruction), 2007 (midconstruction), 2009 (late construction), 2012 (2 years after the end of construction), and 2014 (4 years after the end of construction). The results showed that the phytoplankton community in the Caofeidian Sea mainly consisted of Bacillariophyta before the start of coastal engineering but that both Bacillariophyta and Pyrrophyta became the main body of the phytoplankton community after construction. After completion of the coastal engineering project, phytoplankton species, abundance, and biodiversity proved to be 36.36, 65.52, and 64.00% lower than before the construction, respectively. Before and after the construction of coastal engineering, the phytoplankton diversity showed the trend of rich (2003) → better (2007) → general (2009) → better (2012) → better (2014). The phytoplankton community structure in the Caofeidian Sea showed a transition of the dominant species, which demonstrated the following trend from preconstruction to postconstruction: Paralia sulcata → Pseudo-nitzschia pungens → Pseudo-nitzschia pungens and Noctiluca scintillans → Eucampia zodiacus and Noctiluca scintillans.