Abstract
We collected surface water along the 142nd E meridian from Tasmania to Antarctica in December 1999. We measured temperature, salinity and total chlorophyll a; additionally, we collected suspended particle size fractions and used fluorometric analysis to determine the quantity of chlorophyll a in each of four cell size classes: picoplankton (<3 µm), two nanoplankton fractions (3–10 µm and 10–20 µm) and microplankton (> 20 µm). Changes in temperature and salinity show that we crossed 6 water masses separated by 5 fronts. We found low abundance (<0.2 mg m−3) of chlorophyll in all size classes, with the exception of higher values near the continent (0.2 to 0.4 mg m−3). Lowest chlorophyll values (<0.1 mg m−3) were found in the Polar Frontal Zone (51° to 54°S). Microplankton made up the largest portion of total chlorophyll throughout most of the region. We conclude that biomass of all phytoplankton fractions, especially pico-and nanoplankton, was constrained by limiting factors, most probably iron, throughout the region and that ecosystem dynamics within a zone are not circumpolar but are regionalized within sectors.
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Ehnert, W., McRoy, C.P. Phytoplankton biomass and size fractions in surface waters of the Australian sector of the southern ocean. J Oceanogr 63, 179–187 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-007-0020-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-007-0020-y