Size structure and sedimentation of biogenic microparticulates in a subarctic ecosystem

• Published in: Journal of Plankton Research
• Main Author: Bienfang, Paul K.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1984
• Subjects: Articles; Subarctic; Alaska
• Online Access: http://plankt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/6/6/985; https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/6.6.985

Data describing sinking rates and size structure of microparticulate material were collected from Resurrection Bay, Alaska during the summer. Spring conditions were inferred from similar data obtained from a large outdoor pond supplied with nutrient-rich deep water. Size structure of chlorophyll and photosynthesis were clearly different in the two assemblages. In the summer assemblage, the majority of particulate chlorophyll, carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, silica, and photosynthesis occurred in the <5 μm fraction. Average sinking rates of the various constituents of the total suspended material differed substantially and ranged from 0.07 to 0.63 m d−1. The total downward flux of carbon was l3% of daily primary production and the sinking of material greater than 20 μm accounted for nearly all of the downward flux. Sinking rates of actively growing spring assemblages differed from the smaller summer assemblages by only a few tenths of a meter per day.