Abstract
In order to determine whether phytoplankton growth rates were normal or depressed, total plant carbon (μg l−1) and in situ production rates (μg C l−1 d−1) were measured for phytoplankton assemblages at Weathership Station P (50°N; 145°W) and at 53°N; 145°W in the subarctic Pacific in May and August 1984. Plant carbon, estimated from cell volumes determined using epifluorescence microscopy, was distributed as follow: 28% in the <2 μm fraction, 38% in the 2 to 5 μm size fraction, and the remainder in size classes >5 μm. Carbon-specific growth rates (k), as doublings d−1, were calculated for the phytoplankton assemblages as a whole at each sampling depth down to 100 m for three days in May and for four days in August. The populations in the upper part of the euphotic zone showed average doubling rates of 1 d−1 and thus appeared to be growing at rates normally expected for the prevailing conditions of light and temperature. The low chlorophyll concentrations (0.3 to 0.4 mg chl a m−3) characteristically found in this oceanic region do not seem to be due to very slow growth of algal populations.
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Communicated by P. C. Schroeder, Pullman
Contribution No. 1695 of the School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
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Booth, B.C., Lewin, J. & Lorenzen, C.J. Spring and summer growth rates of subarctic Pacific phytoplankton assemblages determined from carbon uptake and cell volumes estimated using epifluorescence microscopy. Mar. Biol. 98, 287–298 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00391207
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00391207