THE DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF CHROOCOCCOID CYANOBACTERIA IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN (Ninth Symposium on Polar Biology)

• Main Authors: Harvey J. MARCHANT, Andrew T. DAVIDSON, Simon W. WRIGHT
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Proceeding 1987
• Subjects: Austral; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica; Polar Biology; Proceedings of the NIPR Symposium on Polar Biology
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=5010; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00005010/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=5010&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

The abundance of phycoerythrin-containing chroococcoid cyanobacteria in the surface waters between Australia and Antarctica were determined by counts of yellow autofluorescing cells on four transects of the Southern Ocean in the 1985/86 austral summer and by analysis of the pigment zeaxanthin. Despite widely differing daylengths on these transects the principal determinant of cyanobacterial abundance appears to be temperature, with cell number being exponentially related to water temperature. Ultrastructural differences found in the cell Wall of Southern Ocean cyanobacteria may indicate the presence of different strains.