DISTRIBUTION OF PARTICULATE MATTER WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BIOGENIC SILICA OF SURFACE

• Main Authors: Waters In, The Bering, Sea Gyre, In Summer, Akihiro Shiomoto, Miki Ogura
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Ocean; Bering Sea; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.550.2092; http://polaris.nipr.ac.jp/~penguin/polarbiosci/issues/pdf/1994-Shiomoto.pdf

Abstract: Biogenic silica (BSi), lithogenic silica (LSi), particulate organic carbon (POC) and nitrogen (PON), and chlorophyll a (Chl. a) of surface waters were measured in the Bering Sea Gyre in summer. Twenty one stations were divided into three water types according to salinity and LSi distributions: the waters of the eastern Bering Sea Shelf (Type I), the waters around the Aleutian Islands (Type 11), and other water types (Type 111). The mean concentrations of particulate matter were largest in Type I1 and smallest in Type I. The concen-tration of BSi in Type I1 was 22 times larger than that in Type I, and those of other components were several times larger in the former water type than in the latter type. The mean value of BSiIPOC ratio was 0.02 in Type I, 0.28 in Type I1 and 0.15 in Type 111, although the POCIPON ratios were nearly constant among water types (meankSD=6.8*1.6). Furthermore, the mean value of BSiIPOC ratio in Type I1 was twice as high as the typical Si (cellular si1icon)IC (cellular carbon) ratio of diatoms (0.13) and was nearly equal to high values (0.30-0.65) in the Antarctic Ocean, possibly reflecting the high silicate demand of diatoms. These results show that BSi characterizes the distribution pattern of particulate organic matter, in particular, the diatoms, in surface waters of the polar seas.