Composition of Sinking Particulates Collected under Fast Ice near Syowa Station, East Antarctica, in Early Spring and Early Summer, 1994

• Main Authors: Ryoko Saito, Sakae Kudoh, Toshihiko Sato, Kentaro Watanabe, Mitsuo Fukuchi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: National Institute of Polar Research 1998
• Subjects: geo; Austral; East Antarctica; Syowa Station; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.15094/00009054; https://doaj.org/article/2148872cd0d848fe9c3a6f1f1f1e3517

Sinking particles collected in several sediment trap experiments near Syowa Station in austral spring-summer in 1994 have been microscopically analyzed. From the features of the shape and morphology, collected particles were identified, enumerated and measured, and the flux of each identified species was estimated. The majority of the particles were composed of diatom cells and "fecal pellet"-like aggregates were recognized in the samples. In spring, the particle fluxes were rather low and higher fluxes were detected in summer. In particular, diatom cell flux increased by two order of magnitude. The composition of the sinking particles varied seasonally; a centric diatom, Corethron criophilum, and round-shape fecal pellets accounted for dominant diatom cell and fecal pellet fluxes in the spring. But pennate diatoms and collumn-shape pellets dominated in summer. The vertical flux varied, too. In spite of the significant difference of total bio-volume flux between spring and summer (>30 times higher in summer), the bio-volume ratio, such as total identified diatoms and fecal pellets, stayed rather constant.