Abstract
The distribution of cyanobacteria in the surface waters of the North Sea was measured during July 1987. Numbers of cyanobacteria ranged from 2.5x106 to 1.7x108 cells 1-1. In the majority of stations, cyanobacterial numbers were highest in the near-surface water and a subsurface maximum was found at only one station. The distribution of 14C among the end-products of photosynthesis was determined for picoplankton (<1 μm) and other phytoplankton >1 μm throughout the North Sea. The majority of label was found in the protein fraction of both picoplankton and >1 μm phytoplankton; incorporation into lipids and polysaccharides plus nucleic acids was much lower. We interpret the large incorporation into protein to be a consequence of nutrient limitation of these natural assemblages. Photosynthetic parameters of the two size fractions were also determined. Assimilation number (P Bm ) and initial slope αβ were greater for the picoplankton fraction than for phytoplankton >1 μm but there was no evidence of significant photoinhibition of either fraction at irradiances up to 1 000 μE m-2 s-1.
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Communicated by J. Mauchline, Oban
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Howard, K.M., Joint, I.R. Physiological ecology of picoplankton in the North Sea. Mar. Biol. 102, 275–281 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428289
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428289