Phytoplankton of Kongsfjorden, An Arctic fjord in Svalbard Islands, 2005

In order to investigate the structure of phytoplankton communities, chlorophyll a and phytoplankton communities were measured at 15 stations from October 9 to 11, 2005 at Kongsfjorden, Svalbard Islands, Norway. The concentrations of nano-picophytoplankton chlorophyll a were higher than those of microphytoplankton. Dominant phytoplankton were nano-picophytoplankton such as Phaeocystis sp., Pyramimonas sp.. Phytoplankton communities were composed of diatoms, dinoflagellates, cryptophyceae, prasinophyceae and prymnesiophyceae and showed 17 taxa in surface. The most abundant species was picophytoplankton in all station, but the second was variable. Phytoplankton Cell abundance ranged from minimum 1.9×106cells ℓ-1 to maximum 7.2×106cells ℓ-1. As a result, Phytoplankton might be controlled by physical factors such as Norwegian Atlantic Current at the study area.
Recognizing the distribution and diversity of phytoplankton in Arctic fjords