Spatial and temporal variations of photsynthetic parameters in relation to environmental conditions in coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico
- Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Stennis Space Center, MS (United States)
- Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab., Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Eight cruises in the northern Gulf of Mexico made an effort to characterize temporal and spatial variability in parameters of the photosynthesis-irradiance saturation curve and to relate the observed variations to environmental conditions (temperature, salinity, nutrients, mixed layer depth, attenuation coefficient, and daily photosynthetically available radiation). Experiments to examine the importance of diel variation in upper mixed layer populations, both river plume and shelf-slope populations, were conducted in July-August 1990 and March 1991. In conclusion, relationships between P-I parameters and environmental variable in the region of study were significant in some cases, but variation between cruises made it difficult to generalize. The authors attributed this variation to the physically dynamic characteristics of the region and the possible effects of variables that were not included in the analysis such as species composition. Our findings do support the view that a limited set of observations may be adequate to characterize P-I parameter distributions in a given region within a restricted period of time. 62 refs., 8 figs., 8 tabs.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 111063
- Journal Information:
- Estuaries, Vol. 17, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Dec 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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