Physiological characteristics and production of mixed layer and chlorophyll maximum phytoplankton populations in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Phytoplankton photosynthetic rates and relative and absolute growth rates were estimated using 14C techniques at five stations in the Carribean Sea and two stations in the western Atlantic. Integral photosynthetic rates at the Caribbean stations averaged (±1 S.D.) 633 ± 77 mg C m −2 d −1. Light-saturated growth rates were about 0.6 d −1. Relative growth rates averaged 85% in the surface mixed layer and 93% in the lower euphotic zone. Uptake of 14C at night accounted for 26% of the integral production at the Caribbean stations. The specific activity of Chl a carbon increased at night, and growth rates inferred from this increase were highly correlated with nocturnal 14C uptake. Based on the Chl a carbon specific activity data, about 76% of the nocturnal 14C uptake was attributed to phytoplankton. This uptake may have represented assimilation of labeled DOC excreted during the photoperiod. Over 80% of the Chl a in the chlorophyll maximum layers fell in the picoplankton size range. Incubation of these populations at higher irradiance levels revealed no indication of light adaptation over a 24 h period, a result consistent with recent studies of Synechococcus. Chlorophyll maximum populations occurred at about the 3% light level and were estimated to be growing with a doubling time of a little over 2 days. Estimated phytoplankton carbon concentrations were virtually identical in the mixed layers and chlorophyll maxima. The latter were therefore the result of adaptation of the phytoplankton to low irradiance levels and did not represent biomass maxima.