Comparing phytoplankton seasonality in the eastern and western subarctic Pacific and the western Bering Sea

Abstract The observations of phytoplankton pigment by the former Coastal Zone Color Scanner for offshore areas of the subarctic Pacific and the western Bering Sea were reprocessed with attention to electronic overshoot. The data comprise 1979 to mid-1986, with two to three years of good coverage early in the period. Means for the individual days for seven large offshore `boxes' in each of the eastern and western subdivisions are depicted and evaluated, as are some surface observations of chlorophyll a and nutrients from ships. Basically, the entire deep-water region is a High Nutrient (nitrate)/Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) regime, excepting the areas off Washington/California and Hokkaido. Eastern and western subarctic including the deep Bering Sea do not differ in respect to the seasonal patterns of phytoplankton. Spring and summer blooms are absent throughout. Apparently, the winter production of phytoplankton is high enough also in the west, in spite of a deeper mixed layer, to maintain enough microzooplankton to suppress these blooms. The seasonal pattern of pigment appears to have been unaffected by the interdecadal regime shift of 1976/1977. This holds probably also for the concentrations, so that satellite observations of pigment will tell little about such shifts. The mechanism leading to rare autumn blooms in some boxes, relatively close to the continents, is unclear. In place of relaxation of grazing pressure from seasonal downward migration of larger zooplankton, a case is made for seasonally blown ash from volcanic eruptions as a source of iron, which increases algal division rates. Lack of sufficient size-fractionation data for phytoplankton in terms of chlorophyll is a serious impediment to understanding the seasonal phenomena.

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