Microplankton Composition and Spatial Distribution Along the West Antarctic Peninsula During the Late Summer of 2017

Abstract

Microplankton is composed of organisms between 20 and 200 µm in size (greatest axial linear dimension) and is a mixture of phytoplankton and zooplankton. It is an important component of the marine pelagic ecosystem not only as primary producers but also as consumers in the microbial loop. In the present paper, the results of microplankton species abundance and their community structure during the first Turkish Antarctic Expedition (TAE-1) at late Antarctic summer were given at four coastal stations along the west Antarctic Peninsula (wAP). According to these results, a total of 37 microplankton species were observed. Diatoms were the dominant group, followed by ciliates. The highest total microplankton cell concentrations were 18370 cells l-1 and 24350 cells l-1 at P4 and P2 sampling stations, respectively. Although the most common phytoplankton and ciliate species were Odontella weissflogii and Cymatocylis affinis, respectively, diversity indexes showed that no dominance of a species could be mentioned at any station. Additionally, we observed that the southern part of the wAP is significantly different from its northernmost part in microplankton abundance/composition.