Distribution of biogenic particulate matter in the surface waters of the Bering Sea basin, winter 1993

Abstract: Biogenic silica (BSi), particulate organic carbon (POC) and nitrogen (PON) and chlorophyll a (Chl a) of surface waters were measured in the Bering Sea basin from January through March 1993. BSi concentration varied extraordinarily among stations (0.01-0.59 pM) and was relatively high in th...

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Main Author: Akihiro Shiomoto
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
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Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.568.7644
http://polaris.nipr.ac.jp/~penguin/polarbiosci/issues/pdf/2002-Shiomoto.pdf
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Summary:Abstract: Biogenic silica (BSi), particulate organic carbon (POC) and nitrogen (PON) and chlorophyll a (Chl a) of surface waters were measured in the Bering Sea basin from January through March 1993. BSi concentration varied extraordinarily among stations (0.01-0.59 pM) and was relatively high in the central region. POC and PON concentrations showed variations of several fold among stations (2.28-1 1.38 pM for POC and 0.36-2.11 pM for PON), and were relatively high in the eastern region. The regional variations of POC and PON concentrations reflected that of Chl a concentration, whereas the same results were not found for the BSi concentration. Extraordinary variation was found in the BSiPOC atomic ratio (<0.01-0.21), and values above average (>0.070) were observed in the central region. Values higher than 0.13, the typical atomic ratio of cellular silicon to cellular carbon for culture diatoms, were also found. In contrast, POCPON atomic ratios were roughly uniform (mostly 4-10) and the average was 6.7. The present results show a possibility that diatoms with high silicon demand occur in the Bering Sea basin in winter. In addition, I also compared the characteristics of biogenic particulate matter with those in the summertime Bering Sea basin and in the wintertime Antarctic Ocean.