Community composition and photosynthetic physiology of phytoplankton in the western subarctic Pacific near the Kuril Islands with special reference to iron availability ...

• Main Authors: Yoshida, Kazuhiro, Nakamura, Suzu, Nishioka, Jun, Hooker, Stanford, Suzuki, Koji
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2019
• Subjects: The western subarctic Pacific; Phytoplankton community; photophysiology; Scanning electron microscopy; iron availability; oceanic primary production; Kamchatka Peninsula; Okhotsk; Pacific; Kamchatka; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k3j9kd53q; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.k3j9kd53q

The western subarctic Pacific (WSP) is known as one of the most productive regions among the world’s oceans in spring. However, its oceanic waters are also known as a High Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) region during summer due to low iron (Fe) availability in seawater. Indeed, recent studies have demonstrated that the distribution of Fe in the WSP is complex and heterogeneous. This study thus investigated the effects of Fe availability on the community composition and photophysiology of surface phytoplankton from coastal to offshore waters in the WSP in the summer of 2014. Although relatively high concentrations (>2 mg m–3) of chlorophyll (chl) a were found in the Sea of Okhotsk and some coastal waters, low chl a concentrations (<1 mg m–3) were commonly observed. Based on dissolved Fe and macronutrient concentrations, we deduced that low Fe availability limited phytoplankton growth in offshore waters, whereas low silicate and/or nitrate levels limited growth in the shelf areas. Scanning electron ... : This data was collected from surface waters in the western subarctic Pacific near the Kuril Islands and the eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. The dataset includes (1)geographical information, (2)physicochemical properties of surface seawater, (3)light conditions at the surface and (4) community composition of surface phytoplankton identified using a scanning electron microscopy . ...