Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS06 Carbon Fluxes at Ocean and Large Lake Margins (Environmental Connections)

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001, Time: 2:30:00 PM

Location: Brazos

de la Broise, D, , SIO, UCSD, San Diego, USA, and LUMAQ, UBO, Quimper, France, denis.de-labroise@univ-brest.fr

Palenik, B, , SIO, UCSD, San Diego, USA, bpalenik@ucsd.edu

WAVES ARE A MAJOR FACTOR IN SYNECHOCCOCUS CELL COUNT FLUCTUATIONS IN A NEARSHORE SOUTH-CALIFORNIAN ENVIRONMENT

Pico- and nanophytoplankton are known to exhibit long term (seasonal) and short term cell count fluctuations. The SIO pier site in coastal Southern California however shows much less of a seasonal cycle than reported previously at other sites and short term fluctuations are common. In order to further investigate such fluctuations, Synechoccocus cell counts in surface waters off the SIO pier were measured for 150 days (March to August 2000), using a flow cytometer. Wave height was continuously monitored using an immersed sensor (SIO climate research division). Wave height (3 day moving average) appeared to be strongly correlated with the Synechococcus cell counts four days later (P=0.999, n=71, R=0.745). A significant correlation was also obtained between the maximum values of the wave height peaks and the maximum value of the following Synechoccocus peaks (P=0.999, n=12, R=0.90). These results suggest that waves could be a major factor in short term fluctuations of Synechoccocus in surface coastal waters.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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