Picophytoplankton dynamics and production in the Arabian Sea during the 1995 Southwest Monsoon

Phytoplankton community structure is expected to shift to larger cells (e.g., diatoms) with monsoonal forcing in the Arabian Sea, but recent studies suggest that small primary producers remain active and important, even in areas strongly influenced by coastal upwelling. To better understand the role of smaller phytoplankton in such systems, we investigated growth and grazing rates of picophytoplankton populations and their contributions to phytoplankton community biomass and primary productivity during the 1995 Southwest Monsoon (August-September). Environmental conditions at six study stations varied broadly from open-ocean oligotrophic to coastal eutrophic, with mixed-layer nitrate and chlorophyll concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 11.5 mu M NO(3) and 0.16 to 1.5 mu g Chl a. Picophytoplankton comprised up to 92% of phytoplankton carbon at the oceanic stations, 35% in the diatom-dominated coastal zone, and 26% in a declining Phaeocystis bloom. Concurrent in situ dilution and (14)C-uptake experiments gave comparable ranges of community growth rates (0.53-1.05 d(-1) and 0.44-1.17 d(-1), to the 1% light level), but uncertainties in C:Chl a confounded agreement at individual stations. Microzooplankton grazing utilized 81% of community phytoplankton growth at the oligotrophic stations and 54% at high-nutrient coastal stations, Prochlorococcus (PRO) was present at two oligotrophic stations, where its maximum growth approached 1.4 d(-1) (two doublings per day) and depth-integrated growth varied from 0.2 to 0.8 d(-1). Synechococcus (SYN) growth ranged from 0.5 to 1.1 d(-1) at offshore stations and 0.6 to 0.7 d(-1) at coastal sites. Except for the most oligotrophic stations, growth rates of picoeukaryotic algae (PEUK) exceeded PRO and SYN. reaching 1.3 d(-1) offshore and decreasing to 0.8 d(-1) at the most coastal station. Microzooplankton grazing impact averaged 90, 70, and 86% of growth for PRO, SYN, and PEUK, respectively. Picoplankton as a group accounted for 64% of estimated gross carbon production for all stations. and 50% at high-nutrient. upwelling stations. Prokaryotes (PRO and SYN) contributed disproportionately to production relative to biomass at the most oligotrophic station, while PEUK were more important at the coastal stations. Even during intense monsoonal forcing in the Arabian Sea, picoeukaryotic algae appear to account for a large portion of primary production in the coastal upwelling regions, supporting an active community of protistan grazers and a high rate of carbon cycling in these areas. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.