FOOD WEBS AND PRIMARY PRODUCTION IN THE BARENTS SEA (Twelfth Symposium on Polar Biology)

• Main Author: Egil SAKSHAUG
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Proceeding 1991
• Subjects: Barents Sea; Polar Biology; Proceedings of the NIPR Symposium on Polar Biology
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=5117; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00005117/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=5117&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

This summary paper describes the food webs in the Barents Sea and deals with the seasonal changes in the phytoplankton stock and productivity. The pelagic food web is, as elsewhere, based mainly on unicellular algae (phytoplankton) as the primary producers. Temperatures of-1.8 to 5℃ set an upper limit of about 0.6-0.8 d^<-1> for the growth rate of diatoms in the Barents Sea. Phytoplankton biomass may reach as high as 10-15 mg m^<-3> in terms of Chlorophyll a or 300-600 mg m^<-3> in terms of carbon at the peak of the spring bloom. During most of the productive season, Chl a concentrations are 0.2-1 .Omg m^<-3> in the upper layers and 5-20 mg m^<-3> at and near the pycnocline. Typical daily rates for primary production are 10-60 mgC m^<-3>; during the peak of the spring bloom up to 300-600 mgC m^<-3>.