Relationship Between Light Intensity and Abundance of Dinoflagellate in Samalona Island, Makassar

Light is the limiting factor to photosynthesis process of dinoflagellate and for the daily variability of growth. The light intensity could affect photosynthesis activity and the abundance of dinoflagellate. This study showed a temporal variaty of the abundance of dinoflagellate in Samalona island. This study aims were to show the pattern of dinoflagellate abundance and the chlorophyll tendency and exposure time of dinoflagellate abundance in the Samalona island waters. The study was conducted by incubating the dinoflagellate into a bottle in the morning until afternoon. The observation time were made every 2 hours with 3 replicates. The abundance of dinoflagellate was measured the nutrient and the light intensity. Linear regression is used for data analysis. The results showed that the light intensity values ranged between 50-3000 lux, the abundance of dinoflagellate ranged between 9-1105 cells.L^-1 and the chlorophyll more dominant ranged of 0.00069-0.50321 μg.L^-1. The results of simple linear regression was proved that light intensity affects the abundance of dinoflgellate, however the nutrient content has a small influences for the abundance of dinoflagellate. Abundance patterns of dinoflagellate vary from morning to afternoon influenced by the light intensity in the process of photosynthesis and other environmental conditions such as chlorophyll a and nutrient. The study result sprovided information a temporal variety of the abundance of dinoflagellate in Samalona Island, Makassar.