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JPR Advance Access originally published online on January 15, 2009
Journal of Plankton Research 2009 31(4):447-458; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbn128
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Summer succession of ultraphytoplankton at the EPEA coastal station (Northern Argentina)

Ricardo Silva1,*, Rubén Negri1 and Vivian Lutz1,2

1 Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), Paseo Victoria Ocampo Nº1 (B7602HSA), Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET)

* CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: risilva{at}inidep.edu.ar

Received on October 17, 2008; accepted on December 5, 2008


  Abstract

Ultraphytoplankton (<5 µm) are important members of food webs in any pelagic system. Temporal succession in their community structure was studied at a coastal station (38°28'S–57°41'W), "Estación Permanente de Estudios Ambientales (EPEA)", during summer 2001–2002. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic algae of this fraction, and small protozoa were identified, enumerated and optically characterized using a combination of methods: classic and fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry and absorption spectra. Ultraphytoplankton contributed up to 90% of total chlorophyll a during this summer. Synechococcus dominated the community and their highest biomass was related to high temperature and stability during January. Chlorophyta coccal algae had a maximum biomass in February, when the water column was weakly stratified. Cryptophyceae, Prymnesiophyceae, Prasinophyceae, Bacillariophyceae and Chrysophyceae ultra-algae were present in variable proportions throughout the period. Variations in optical properties were significantly related to the shift from prokaryotic to eukaryotic coccal cells, which would allow the possibility of inferring phytoplankton types bio-optically. The ultraphytoplankton succession was mainly driven by physical forces, especially the degree of stability. Algae with coccal life-form strategies seem to be a major source of biogenic carbon supporting the functioning of this pelagic coastal ecosystem during summer.

Corresponding editor: William Li


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