VARIABILITY IN STEROL FLUX IN THE ICE-COVERED LAGOON SAROMA KO, HOKKAIDO, JAPAN (Eleventh Symposium on Polar Biology)

• Main Authors: ササキ ヒロシ, ヤマグチ トシヤス, ワタナベ ケンタロウ, タニムラ アツシ, フクチ ミツオ, Hiroshi SASAKI, Toshiyasu YAMAGUCHI, Kentaro WATANABE, Atsushi TANIMURA, Mitsuo FUKUCHI
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Proceeding 1990
• Subjects: Polar Biology; Proceedings of the NIPR Symposium on Polar Biology
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=5083; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00005083/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=5083&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

A time-series sediment trap was deployed in a shallow lagoon, Saroma Ko, from 9 December 1986 to 2 May 1987. During the ice-covered period (mid-January to mid-April) total mass fluxes (dry weight) were lower than 2 gm^<-2> day^<-1>, while after mid-April the flux increased to more than 11 gm^<-2> day^<-1>. The dominant sterol associated with sinking particles throughout the observation period was cholesterol most of which were possibly from animal-derived sources such as scallop feces. During the ice-covered period, sterols mostly were derived from marine animals, although the sterol abundance was low in quantity. The period of phytoplankton bloom below the ice (mid-March to mid-April) did not respond to that of the maximum flux (after mid-April), but coincided with that of the occurrence of phytoplankton-derived sterols. During the ice-free periods (before mid-January and after mid-April), sinking particle sources are variable, and bottom sediment- and land-derived (mostly terrestrial plants) sterols are larger in quantity than those during the ice-covered periods, primarily because of the active water movements in the lagoon.