The significance of microalgal blooms for fisheries and for the export of particulate organic carbon in oceans

Abstract

Microalgal blooms are rapid increases in biomass, caused by locally enhanced primary production and resulting in abnormally high cell concentrations. Hydrodynamical processes may control blooms through the agency of irradiance and/or nutrients. In the oceans, phytoplankton blooms primarily governed by irradiance include the spring outburst, as well as the ice-edge, under-ice, winter, upwelling and estuarine blooms. Those primarily governed by nutrients comprise the tidal, summer, episodic and exceptional blooms. In addition, there are blooms of ice microalgae (...)