New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Pigment fluxes from the Subtropical Convergence region, east of New Zealand:
relationships to planktonic community structure
SCOTT NODDER
New Zealand Oceanographic Institute
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
Research Ltd
P. O. Box 14 901, Kilbirnie
Wellington, New Zealand
email: s.nodder@niwa.cri.nz
MARK GALL
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
Research Ltd
P. O. Box 8602, Riccarton
Christchurch, New Zealand
email: m.gall@niwa.cri.nz
Abstract A preliminary sediment trap study using
photosynthetic pigments as biomarker tracers of pelagic food web processes was
conducted in three different water types (subantarctic, Subtropical
Convergence, and subtropical), east of New Zealand, in winter and spring 1993.
The presence of undegraded pigments in trap samples from water depths of
100-550 m indicate that phytoplankton cells were removed rapidly from
surface waters, presumably mainly as sinking intact phytoplankton chains,
marine aggregates, or as unconverted pigments in zooplankton waste products.
Average pigment budget estimates indicate that <1% day
-1 of
chlorophyll
a standing stock and <4% of primary production were
exported during winter and spring. Microzooplankton grazing (4-92%
day
-1 chlorophyll
a standing stock and 20-194% primary
production) was potentially the most important process affecting particle
retention in the upper water column and hence pigment fluxes across all three
water types. Bacterial degradation, mesozooplankton grazing, and seasonal
stratification were potentially important in subtropical waters in spring.
Keywords photosynthetic pigments; particulate fluxes;
Subtropical Convergence; marine food webs; chlorophyll a; carotenoids;
phaeopigments; HPLC
M97045
Received 21 August 1997; accepted 28 January 1998
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1773K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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