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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 29, NO. 19, 1938, doi:10.1029/2002GL015277, 2002

Taxon-specific differences in C/P and N/P drawdown for phytoplankton in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

Kevin R. Arrigo

Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA


Robert B. Dunbar

Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA


Michael P. Lizotte

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, Boothbay Harbor, Maine, USA


D. H. Robinson

Romberg Tiburon Center, San Francisco State University, Tiburon, California, USA


Abstract

Data from 11 cruises to the Ross Sea, Antarctica show that non-Redfield N/P and C/P drawdown ratios for diatoms and Phaeocystis antarctica were a consistent feature of the phytoplankton communities between 1990 and 1998. Ratios of N/P drawdown for waters dominated by P. antarctica ranged from 17.2–19.5, consistently exceeding the Redfield ratio of 16. Similarly, the C/P drawdown ratio for P. antarctica-dominated waters ranged from 120–154, 13–45% greater than the Redfield ratio of 106. Waters dominated by diatoms exhibited much lower ratios than Redfield for N/P (mean = 11.9) and C/P (mean = 76.2) drawdown. There was no seasonal trend to the drawdown ratios by either taxa. Sediment trap data exhibited C/P ratios for P. antarctica-dominated samples that were twice that for diatoms, suggesting that the large taxonomic difference in C/P drawdown ratio is expressed as a difference in particulate C/P ratio which is subsequently exported to depth.

Published 15 October 2002.

Index Terms: 4845 Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Nutrients and nutrient cycling; 4207 Oceanography: General: Arctic and Antarctic oceanography; 4271 Oceanography: General: Physical and chemical properties of seawater; 4805 Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Biogeochemical cycles (1615).

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Citation: Arrigo, K. R., R. B. Dunbar, M. P. Lizotte, and D. H. Robinson (2002), Taxon-specific differences in C/P and N/P drawdown for phytoplankton in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29(19), 1938, doi:10.1029/2002GL015277.