PRODUCTIVITY OF THE ANTARCTIC WATERS - A REAPPRAISAL
S. EL-SAYED
Department of Oceanography, Texas A & M University,
College Station, Texas 77843, USA
I.
INTRODUCTION
The study of Antarctic marine phytoplankton has a long history
that dates back nearly a century and a half, when J. D. Hooker, the
famed botanist-surgeon of the EREBUS and TERROR Expedition (1839-43)
reported the ubiquitous presence of diatoms during the Antarctic summer. Hooker sent some of the samples collected between Cape Horn and
the Ross Sea to C. G. Ehrenberg, who published the first paper on Antarctic diatoms in 1844.
During the following three-quarters of a century, extensive
collecting (mostly using nets) of Antarctic phytoplankton was conducted by members of such celebrated expeditions as the CHALLENGER
(1872-76), ANTARCTICA (1895), BELGICA (1897-99), VALDIVIA (1898-99),
SOUTHERN CROSS (1899-1900), GAUSS (1901-03), SCOTIA (1902-04) and the
POURQUOI PAS? (1908-10). The majority of the papers published dealt
with diatoms and, to a much lesser extent, with dinoflagellates and
silicoflagellates.
The initiation of the DISCOVERY Investigations (1925-39), which
laid the foundation of our knowledge of the general oceanography of
the Southern Ocean, ushered ina new phase of Antarctic phytoplankton
research. Hart (1934, 1942) made one of the most extensive and detailed studies of Antarctic phytoplankton ever conducted. Despite
his nonquantitative methods, Hart was able to describe the gross
features of phytoplankton periodicity in Antarctic waters better than
any other student of Antarctic phytoplankton (Hasle, 1969). Hart
divided the Antarctic Zone into three different regions, and grouped
the species collected according to their seasonal and geographic distribution. He observed that the main increase in phytoplankton
started earlier in the Northern Region than it did further south.
Using cell numbers and settled volumes and what he referred to as the
S. EL-SAYED
Department of Oceanography, Texas A & M University,
College Station, Texas 77843, USA
I.
INTRODUCTION
The study of Antarctic marine phytoplankton has a long history
that dates back nearly a century and a half, when J. D. Hooker, the
famed botanist-surgeon of the EREBUS and TERROR Expedition (1839-43)
reported the ubiquitous presence of diatoms during the Antarctic summer. Hooker sent some of the samples collected between Cape Horn and
the Ross Sea to C. G. Ehrenberg, who published the first paper on Antarctic diatoms in 1844.
During the following three-quarters of a century, extensive
collecting (mostly using nets) of Antarctic phytoplankton was conducted by members of such celebrated expeditions as the CHALLENGER
(1872-76), ANTARCTICA (1895), BELGICA (1897-99), VALDIVIA (1898-99),
SOUTHERN CROSS (1899-1900), GAUSS (1901-03), SCOTIA (1902-04) and the
POURQUOI PAS? (1908-10). The majority of the papers published dealt
with diatoms and, to a much lesser extent, with dinoflagellates and
silicoflagellates.
The initiation of the DISCOVERY Investigations (1925-39), which
laid the foundation of our knowledge of the general oceanography of
the Southern Ocean, ushered ina new phase of Antarctic phytoplankton
research. Hart (1934, 1942) made one of the most extensive and detailed studies of Antarctic phytoplankton ever conducted. Despite
his nonquantitative methods, Hart was able to describe the gross
features of phytoplankton periodicity in Antarctic waters better than
any other student of Antarctic phytoplankton (Hasle, 1969). Hart
divided the Antarctic Zone into three different regions, and grouped
the species collected according to their seasonal and geographic distribution. He observed that the main increase in phytoplankton
started earlier in the Northern Region than it did further south.
Using cell numbers and settled volumes and what he referred to as the