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Phytoplankton composition in the Weddell-Scotia Confluence area during austral spring in relation to hydrography

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Abstract

During the EPOS leg 2 cruise of the RV “Polarstern”, carried out in late austral spring of 1988–1989, the composition of phytoplankton in relation to the distribution of hydrographic parameters was studied in four successive transects carried out along 49°W and 47°W, across the Weddell-Scotia Confluence (WSC) and the marginal ice zone (which overlapped in part). In all transects, a maximum of phytoplankton biomass was found in the WSC, in surface waters stabilized by ice melting. Different phytoplankton assemblages could be distinguished. North of the Scotia Front (the northern limit of the WSC) diatoms with Chaetoceros neglectus, Nitzschia spp. and (Thalassiosira gravida) dominated the phytoplankton community. This assemblage appeared to have seeded a biomass maximum which occupied, during the first transect, an area of the WSC, south of the Scotia Front. The southernmost stations of the first transect and all the stations to the south of the Scotia Front in the other transects were populated by a flagellate assemblage (with a cryptomonad, Pyramimonas spp. and Phaeocystis sp.) and an assemblage of diatoms (Corethron criophilum and Tropidoneis vanheurkii among others) associated to the presence of ice. During the last three transects, the flagellate assemblage formed a bloom in the low salinity surface layers of the WSC zone. The bulk of the biomass maximum was formed by the cryptomonad which reached concentrations up to 4×106 cells l−1 towards the end of the cruise. Multivariate analysis is used to summarize phytoplankton composition variation. The relationships between the distribution of the different assemblages and the hydrographic conditions indicate that the change of dominance from diatoms to flagellates in the WSC zone was related to the presence of water masses from different origin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Antártico Argentino, Cerrito 1248 (1010), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Irene Schloss

  2. CONICET, Argentina

    Irene Schloss

  3. Institut de Ciencies del Mar, Paseo Nacional s/n, 08039, Barcelona, Spain

    Marta Estrada

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  1. Irene Schloss
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  2. Marta Estrada
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Data presented here were collected during the European Polarstern Study (EPOS) sponsored by the European Science Foundation

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Schloss, I., Estrada, M. Phytoplankton composition in the Weddell-Scotia Confluence area during austral spring in relation to hydrography. Polar Biol 14, 77–90 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234969

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