Phyto- and zooplankton of the southeastern Barents Sea in April 2000

• Main Authors: Pautova, L A, Vinogradov, Georgy M
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2001
• Subjects: Archive of Ocean Data; ARCOD; Barents Sea; Kara Sea; MULT; Multiple investigations; Pechora Sea; Russia-2000-1; Russia-2000-10; Russia-2000-11; Russia-2000-12; Russia-2000-2; Russia-2000-3; Russia-2000-31; Russia-2000-4; Russia-2000-5; Russia-2000-6; Russia-2000-7; Arctic; Litke; Vorota; Kolguev; Pechora; Phytoplankton; Zooplankton
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.761268; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.761268

Spring bloom of cold-water centric and pennate diatoms was observed in two different areas of the southeastern Barents Sea in April 2000: ice-free waters off the Kolguev Island northern shelf and the eastern Pechora Sea near the Karskie Vorota (Kara Gate) Straight in polynyas and ice-free patches in one-year-old ice. Maximal values of phytoplankton abundance and biomass were found at the ice edge. The bloom was localized in shallow water areas with depths less than 50 m in mixing zones of waters of different origin: warm Atlantic, cold coastal, and Arctic (Litke current) waters. Ice melting was among factors inducing the phytoplankton bloom. Each area had a specific phytocoenosis, whose structure was determined by water origin and ice conditions. In the western Kara Sea, under a solid (up to 30 cm thick) ice cover (i.e., under conditions of a hydrological winter), a spring phytoplankton succession was observed from its initial stage. In areas located close to the ice-cover edge, simultaneously with the mass phytoplankton bloom, the early spring zoocoenosis development manifested itself in mass spawning of euphausiids and mass appearance of Cirripedia nauplii and bottom polychaete larvae.