Chlrorophylls and their Degradation Products using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), with Data from Suspended and Sinking Particulate Matter in Prydz Bay, Antarctica

Abstract

Suspended and sinking particles were collected in austral summer 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 chlorophylls and their degradation products both in suspended and sinking particulate matter in Prydz Bay were analyzed using HPLC. Chlorophylls a and c were the dominant algal pigments both in suspended and sinking particles. Because of the abundance of fecal pellets at Site 740, the mean fluxes at 200 m averaged 6 fold greater than that at 50 m. This implies that a dense swarm of zooplankters, presumably large copepods and/or salps, may "feed and excrete" mainly in between 100-200 m depths at this site, closest to land in Prydz Bay. Interestingly, The flux of phaeophorbide a was generally similar in magnitude to that of chlorophyll a throughout the study areas. This is an evidence that materials escaping from near-surface regions in austral summer derive mainly from the gazing of zooplankters. "New production" from sediment-trapped CHL pigment fluxes in Prydz Bay was estimated using f-ratio of 0.15, ranging from 520 to <TEX>$1,605\;{\mu}gC\;m^{-2}\;day^{-1}$</TEX>.