Spatial patterns in abundance, taxonomic composition and carbon biomass of nano- and microphytoplankton in Subarctic and Arctic Seas

Abstract

In the summers of 2007 and 2008, we studied assemblages of nano- and microphytoplankton from the subsurface chlorophyll maximum (SCM) across five broad oceanographic domains in the seas surrounding northern North America. These domains are the eastern Subarctic North Pacific (ESNP), Bering and Chukchi Seas (BE-CH), Beaufort Sea and Canada Basin (BS-CB), Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA), and Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea (BB-LS). Average abundance and total carbon biomass (C) of phytoplankton (>2 µm) varied ∼10-fold and ∼20-fold, respectively, across the five domains. In the BE-CH, CAA and BB-LS, diatoms averaged 35–70% and dinoflagellates 11–45% of total phytoplankton C (>2 µm), whereas in the ESNP and BS-CB, unidentified flagellates/coccoids (2–8 µm) represented a greater proportion of total C (27% and 39% respectively) than in the other domains. In the BE-CH and BB-LS, phytoplankton C (>2 µm) was dominated by dinoflagellates of the genus Gymnodinium, centric diatoms including Thalassiosira spp. and Chaetoceros spp., unidentified flagellates/coccoids (2–8 µm), and cryptomonads. In contrast, diatoms such as Thalassiosira spp. and its resting spores dominated C in the CAA, with dinoflagellates being less significant than in the BE-CH and BB-LS. Unidentified flagellates/coccoids (2–8 µm), Gymnodinium spp., and cryptomonads dominated in the ESNP, and particularly in the BS-CB, where diatoms contributed only 18% of the very low levels of total phytoplankton C (>2 µm). Phytoplankton C (>2 µm) to chlorophyll a ratios (phyto C:chl a) averaged only 31 g C g chl a−1 in the oligotrophic BS-CB domain, and 51–150 g C g chl a−1 in the other domains, whereas ratios of biogenic silica to phytoplankton C (>2 µm) (bSi:phyto C) were lowest in the eastern domains. Estimates of phytoplankton C were highly sensitive to the choice of C to cell volume equations (C:vol) adopted in the calculations, particularly in diatom-rich areas. This study highlights how diatoms and dinoflagellates are the main drivers of large-scale variations in C biomass for phytoplankton (> 2 µm), whereas unidentified flagellates/coccoids (2–8 µm) make a significant contribution to C biomass in oligotrophic domains, such as BS-CB, where diatoms and dinoflagellates are less abundant. Reduced surface water density (σT) was associated with deeper SCM layers, and with decreased C biomass of unidentified flagellates/coccoids (2–8 µm). These observations confirm recent studies highlighting the role of surface water stratification caused by melting sea ice in shaping nano- and microphytoplankton assemblages.