Carotenoid Pigments from Suspended and Sinking Particulate Matter in Prydz Bay, Antarctica

Abstract

Suspended and sinking particles were collected during ODP Leg 119 to the Indian Ocean sector of the Antarctic Ocean. Field work was carried out at four sampling sites in Prydz Bay. Two of these sites were located in the Outer Bay, and two in the Inner Bay. At the four locations, a total of ten deployments of a sediment trap array were made. The concentrations of carotenoids both in suspended and sinking particulate matter in Prydz Bay were analyzed using HPLC. Fucoxanthin was the dominant carotenoid pigments both in suspended and sinking particles. The present study also indicates that 19'-hexanoyoxyfucoxanthin-containing prymesiophytes (Phaeocystis spp.) was abundant in the study area. The flux rates of carotenoids were generally highest at 50 m, and approximately double the flux rates at deeper horizons, however, at Inner Bay sites, the mean flux rates of carotenoids were greatest at 200 m, and 3 times greater than that of 50 m. Such anomalous high fluxes at 200 m imply that grazers were locally abundant between 100 m and 200 m at these sites close to land, and this hypothesis is supported by visual evidence of lots of fecal pellets in the 200 m trap. Integrates standing stocks versus sinking pigments data support that particulate material in Prydz Bay was not recycled rapidly.