Sibel Bargu

This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon. Open AccessReview by 1,2,*, 1,2, 1,2, 1,2 and 1,2 1 Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA 2 Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

1 Introduction Qinzhou Bay is a semiclosed bay located in the northern Beibu Gulf and is considered to have the greatest phytoplankton biodiversity among the six bays in Guangxi, China (Xu, 2012). There are three rivers, the Qinjiang River, Maolingjiang River and Jingujiang River, that flow into Qinzhou Bay. Thus, large amounts of nutrients are discharged through runoff into the seawater.