Abstract
We determined biomass and activity of microbial plankton across the Polar Front (PF) in Drake Passage during January 1994. Temperature was around 0°C south and between 3 and 5°C north of the PF. Both biomass and activities of microorganisms were significantly lower in the Antarctic waters south of the PF than in the sub-Antarctic waters north of it. Thus, values of chlorophyll a, integrated between 0 and 200 m, reached 150 mgm−2 north, but only 25 mg m−2 south of the PF. Likewise, bacteria varied between 1014 and 4×1013 cells m−2. However, the abundance of heterotrophic nanoflagellates was extremely low throughout Drake Passage (around 3×1010 cells m−2). Bacterial doubling times were long (mean of 25 days). Bacterivory was estimated from the abundance of predators and prey and from temperature. The grazing impact on bacterioplankton biomass was insignificant (less that 0.05% per day) and low on bacterial heterotrophic production (15% per day). Neither biomass nor the activities of microorganisms were found to increase at the PF. The microbial food web was uncoupled and the bacteria did not seem to be controlled by predation.
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Pedrós-Alió, C., Calderón-Paz, J.I., Guixa, N. et al. Microbial plankton across Drake Passage. Polar Biol 16, 613–622 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02329059
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02329059