New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

---

Standing stocks and productivity of phytoplankton off Westland, New Zealand, February 1982

JANET M. BRADFORD

FOOK HOE CHANG

New Zealand Oceanographic Institute
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
Private Bag, Kilbirnie
Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract In February 1982 there was an intense bloom of dinoflagellates close inshore off West-land, New Zealand, and dinoflagellates also formed a large proportion of the phytoplankton offshore. Diatoms were present only at the bottom of the photic zone inshore off Wanganui Bluff, where dissolved nitrate-nitrogen levels were elevated. Most biomass and production parameters were at least twice as large as in winter except for offshore biomass which was larger in winter. Weighted average chlorophyll a concentrations were negatively correlated with the depth of the mixed layer. The relative contribution which the vertical distribution of chlorophyll a, the production per unit chlorophyll a at optimal light intensities, and the initial slope of the light saturation curve made to the relationship between water column production per unit chlorophyll a and incident solar irradiance in inshore and offshore waters is discussed. In the non-senescent inshore populations dominated by Pro-rocentrum micans, 91% of the variance in water column P^B was explained by variance in incident solar irradiance with a light utilisation index of 3.00 g C (g Chi. a)-' E"¹ m².

Keywords phytoplankton; primary productivity; ¹⁴C-uptake; chlorophyll a; phytoplankton cell carbon; specific growth rate; summer; Westland; New Zealand; salinity; temperature; dissolved inorganic nutrients; dissolved oxygen; solar irradiance Received 23 December 1985; accepted 21 May 1986

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1987, Vol. 21: 71-90 0028-8330/87/2101-0071$2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1987 Received 23 December 1985; accepted 21 May 1986

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1315K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

---

This year's abstracts | Journal home page | All abstracts | Publishing home page