Pigment concentration data for mesocosm incubation experiment simulating a phytoplankton bloom in Chesapeake Bay August 2021

A mesocosm experiment was performed in August 2021 on the R/V Hugh Sharp, cruise HRS2110, at a station near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to simulate a phytoplankton bloom and to assess changes in assemblage and biogeochemical processes while excluding changes due to advection. Three 20-L carboys were filled with filtered bay water, inoculated with surface water and sampled daily for a week. Nutrient concentrations, nitrate and bicarbonate uptake rates, pigment concentrations and samples for 18S rRNA gene sequence analysis were collected once or more times per day. 15NO3- and H13CO3- tracer incubations were performed alongside pigment and DNA sampling to compare temporal trends in community composition and primary productivity (nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) transport rates). These results address the nature of phytoplankton blooms, and present a more complex relationship between bloom progression and phytoplankton diversity that usually assumed or detected by traditional methods. This dataset contains the measured pigment concentrations for the three replicate mesocosms over the course of the simulated bloom. These data were collected by Jenna Lee from Princeton University.