PHYTOPLANKTON AND CIILOROPHYLL IN THE GERLACHE AND BRANSFIELD STRAITS OF ANTARCTICA’

• Main Authors: Paul R. Burkholder, John M. Sieburth
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Gerlache; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.527.6368; http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_6/issue_1/0045.pdf

Studies wcrc: mndc on the phytoplankton and chloropl~yll (1 content of waters in the Gcr-lathe and Bransficld Straits of Antarctica during Dcccmbcr 1958 and January 1959. Rich communities of diatoms, snch as?‘lzaZussiosiIa, CoscinotZiscz48, Eucfmpin, and SUnecLcr, and the chrysophyccan Phaeocystis were obscrvccl at numerous stations in the Gcrlacbc Strait and the western part of Bransficld Strait. Dinoflagcllatcs wcrc very SCR~CC: in this region. Antibiotic activity of the plankton was associated with Phaeocystis. The eastern arca of Bransficld Strait, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, was almost dcvoicl of phytoplankton at all dcptl1s. Chlorophyll CL cletcrminations agreed in gcncral with observations on the: abunclancc of phytoplankton. Chlorophyll a ranged up to about 27 mg/m ” of water, and the amount of pigmcnt in snrface waters was invcrscly rclatccl to total depth of the water. During the Antarctic summer of 1958-59, an opportunity was offered for studies on phytoplankton productivity in the marinc waters along the western coast of the Antarc-