In situ net primary productivity and photosynthesis of Antarctic sea ice algal, phytoplankton and benthic algal communities

• Published in: Marine Biology
• Main Authors: McMinn, A, Pankowski, A, Ashworth, CM, Bhagooli, R, Ralph, P, Ryan, K
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer-Verlag 2010
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Oceanography; Biological Oceanography; Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; ice algae; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.springerlink.com/content/; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1414-8; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/67962

Primary production at Antarctic coastal sites iscontributed from sea ice algae, phytoplankton and benthicalgae. Oxygen microelectrodes were used to estimate seaice and benthic primary production at several sites aroundCasey, a coastal area in eastern Antarctica. Maximumoxygen export from sea ice was 0.95 mmol O2 m-2 h-1(*11.7 mg C m-2 h-1) while from the sediment it was6.08 mmol O2 m-2 h-1 (*70.8 mg C m-2 h-1). Whenthe ice was present O2 export from the benthos was eitherlow or negative. Sea ice algae assimilation rates were up to3.77 mg C (mg Chl-a)-1 h-1 while those from the benthoswere up to 1.53 mg C (mg Chl-a)-1 h-1. The contributionof the major components of primary productivity wasassessed using fluorometric techniques. When the ice waspresent approximately 5565% of total daily primary productionoccurred in the sea ice with the remainderunequally partitioned between the sediment and the watercolumn. When the ice was absent, the benthos contributednearly 90% of the primary production.