JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH | VOLUME 17 | NUMBER 12 | PAGES 2251-2274 | 1995
© Oxford University Press
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Bulk-phase viscoelastic properties of seawater relationship with plankton components
Agence de Conseil et de Recherche Océanographiques, Lavergne, 19320 La Roche Canillac, France 1University of Texas at Austin, Marine Science Institute PO Box 1267, Port Aransas, TX 78373-1267, USA
Received on July 9, 1994; accepted on August 14, 1995 The viscous and elastic moduli at different shear rates, together with various biological oceanographic properties, were determined in seawater from different hydrological layers in the southern North Sea in June. The biological oceanographic parameters included Phaeocystis and Noctiluca abundances, chlorophyll a level (Chl), bacteria. HNAN and aggregate volume fraction. The plankton was jointly dominated by Phaeocyslis sp. and Noctiluca scinullans. Noctiluca abundance showed no correlation with any other biological or viscoelastic parameter, but Phaeocystis abundance correlated strongly. The other biological parameters correlated with Phaeocystis and with each other positively and mostly significantly. Overall, viscoelasticity correlated more strongly with Chl than with any other biological parameter. For non-microlayer samples, the excess complex (viscoelastic) modulus (µ.Pa) G*E = 2.0 x Ch11–3 (Chl in mg m–3). Viscous and elastic moduli also correlated closely with each other. For a given value of Chl. the microlayer samples were 6.5 or 14 times (depending on the estimation method) more viscoelastic than in bulk-phase samples. Viscoelasticity in samples of settled benthic ‘fluff’ were lower even than bulk-phase samples, but this difference was not significant. Comparison with Mediterranean data on viscoelasticity (Jenkinson. Oceanol. Acta, 16, 317–334, 1993), using published values for phytoplankton biomass (Wiadnyana, J. Rech. Océanogr., 17, 1–6, 1992), suggests that the relationship between Chl (or phytoplankton biomass) and viscoelasticity might be general. This apparent biomodification of the viscosity and elasticity of seawater is discussed in relation to its likely impact on turbulence and plankton ecology.
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