Seasonal variation of microalgal assemblages at a fixed station in King George Island, Antarctica, 1996

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 229:19-32 (2002) - doi:10.3354/meps229019 Seasonal variation of microalgal assemblages at a fixed station in King George Island, Antarctica, 1996 Jae-Shin Kang1,*, Sung-Ho Kang1, Jin Hwan Lee2, SangHoon Lee1 1Polar Sciences Laboratory, Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute (KORDI), Ansan PO Box 29, Seoul 425-600, Korea 2Department of Biology, Sangmyung University, Seoul 110-743, Korea *E-mail: jskang@kordi.re.kr ABSTRACT: Microalgal assemblages were measured daily from January to December 1996 at a fixed neritic station in Marian Cove, King George Island, Antarctica. The abundance of microalgae and carbon biomass exhibited clear seasonal variation. Annual mean of total microalgal abundance in surface water was 2.43 x 104 cells l-1. Microalgal cell abundance in Marian Cove showed a multimodal distribution of standing crop during the study period. Microalgae started to bloom in October and increased abruptly during November. More than 45% (avg. 3.5 mg m-3) of chl a was present in the 2 months November and December, dominated by microplanktonic diatoms (>20 µm) such as Fragilaria striatula Lyngbye, Licmophora belgicae Peragallo, and Achnanthes groenlandica Grunow. The increase of these diatoms were mainly due to resuspension of benthic microalgae by wind and tidal currents in spring and summer. In contrast, microalgal assemblages in winter were characterized by the dominance of pico- and nanoplanktonic microalgae (<20 µm) such as Phaeocystis antarctica Karsten, Navicula glaciei Van Heurck, and Navicula perminuta Grunow. KEY WORDS: Microalgal abundance · Carbon biomass · Diatom · Picoplanktonic microalgae · Nanoplanktonic microalgae · Marian Cove · King George Island Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 229. Online publication date: March 20, 2002 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2002 Inter-Research.