Photoadaptation in Phaeocystis pouchetii advected beneath annual sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

• Published in: Journal of Plankton Research
• Main Authors: Palmisano, Anna C., SooHoo, Janice Beeler, SooHoo, Spencer L., Kottmeier, Steven T., Craft, Lin L., Sullivan, Cornelius W.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1986
• Subjects: Articles; McMurdo Sound; East Sound; Antarc*; Antarctica; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://plankt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/8/5/891; https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/8.5.891

A bloom of the colonial microalga Phaeocystis pouchetii was advected from ice-free waters to beneath 1.5 m of annual fast ice in East McMurdo Sound, Antarctica in late December 1984. Strategies of photoadaptation to a reduction in growth irradiance involved a 3- to 4-fold increase in photosynthetic efficiency per chlorophyll a (αb) and a 2- to 3-fold increase in photosynthetic efficiency per cell (αc). The index of photoadaptation (I k ) decreased by 50% on both a chlorophyll a and cellular basis. In situ production by Phaeocystis under sea ice in the East Sound is estimated to contribute 16 g carbon m−2 annually, a value comparable with sea ice algal production.