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JPR Advance Access originally published online on August 12, 2009
Journal of Plankton Research 2009 31(11):1339-1351; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbp070
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Spatial distribution of autotrophic picoplankton in relation to physical forcings: the Gulf of Cádiz, Strait of Gibraltar and Alborán Sea case study

Fidel Echevarría1,3, Laura Zabala1, Alfonso Corzo1, Gabriel Navarro2,3, Laura Prieto2,3 and Diego Macías1,4,*

1 Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Ambientales, Universidad de Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain 2 Departamento de Ecología y Gestión Costera, Instituto de Ciencias Marinas de Andalucía, CSIC, Cádiz, Spain 3 Unidad asociada de Oceanografía Interdisciplinar, UCA-CSIC, Cádiz, Spain 4 Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, LA Jolla, California, USA

* CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: diego.macias{at}uca.es; dmaciasmoy{at}ucsd.edu

Received on May 4, 2009; accepted on July 18, 2009


  Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the pattern of distribution of three populations of picoplanktonic autotrophs measured using flow cytometry. Prochlorococcus sp., Synechococcus sp. and eukaryotic picoplankton were investigated at 58 stations to the south of the Iberian Peninsula including the northeastern Gulf of Cádiz, Strait of Gibraltar and northwestern Alborán Sea, during July 1995. There were important differences in the oceanographic conditions in these regions, with warmer, low-nutrient and low-chlorophyll waters in the Atlantic sector and colder, high-nutrient and high-chlorophyll waters in the Alborán sector in which upwelling occurred. The biomass concentration of picoplanktonic cells was two times higher in the Atlantic area than in the richer Alborán Sea waters. The average integrated abundance of picophytoplankton was negatively correlated with chlorophyll a concentration as well as with inorganic nitrogen availability. Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus were the most abundant groups, and they showed a complementarity in their spatial distribution, with a shallower and more coastal distribution of Synechococcus and the presence of Prochlorococcus mainly at offshore stations and at deeper depths. The ratio of autotrophic picoplankton/total autotrophic biomass showed significant differences on both sides of the Strait, with much higher values in the Gulf of Cádiz sector.

Corresponding editor: William Li


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