TITLE:   Palmer LTER: Patterns of distribution of inorganic macronutrients, 
         phytoplankton pigmentation,  and photosynthetic activity in an 
	 ice-dominated ecosystem in austral winter 1993 
AUTHOR:  Barbara Sullivan, H. Allen Matlick, and Barbara PreŽzelin
Palmer LTER Contribution No. 43, ANTJ 1994 Reveiw, Vol 29, No 5, 207-211

In August-September, 1993, we resolved the mesoscale variability 
in phytoplankton pigmentation, nutrient distributions and 
photosynthetic activity in waters west of the Palmer Peninusla.  
Pigmentation was very dilute in the late winter period. Maximum Chl 
a biomass was ca. 250 ng/L, or about one-fourth that measured for 
the same region the previous austral fall (March-April 1993) and 
about one-half that measured in the austral spring (November) of 
1991 when the region was also heavily ice-covered.  Diatoms 
dominated surface waters of the shallower inshore waters while a 
fairly even mixture of diatoms, prymnesiophytes and chrysophytes 
comprised offshore communities with no clear relationship to 
nutrient distribution.  Highest photosynthetic activity appeared 
associated with the diatoms.  For the combined database, 
correlations between pigments (chlorophyll a, fucoxanthin, but-
fucoxanthin, and hex-fucoxanthin) and nutrient concentrations 
(nitrate, phosphate and silicate) were not significant.  The low 
biomass, high assimilation rates and low C/N ratios suggested that 
the overall phytoplankton growth was not nutrient limited but light-
limited.