Seasonal Variations in the Phosphate and Silicate Content of Sea-Water in Relation to the Phyto-plankton Crop. Part V. November 1927 to April 1929, Compared with Earlier Years from 1923

Abstract

In the previous numbers of this series (1923, 1925, 1926, 1928) it was fully established that the phosphate and silicate content of sea-water becomes greatly reduced in spring and summer. It is possible to calculate a minimum value for the phytoplankton crop from the amount of phosphate used up, also to ascertain the production up to and between various dates; such information has a direct bearing on the supply of food for copepods and other animals upon which young fish feed. The accumulation of data of this type should in time permit of some generalization as to the favourableness or otherwise of any season with respect to the survival of relatively large numbers of young fish of various species in the locality studied. The present paper is a further contribution towards the amassing of seasonal productivity data which has been in progress since March 1923, with a gap from March to October, inclusive, during 1927. Information has moreover been sought as to the extent to which the removal of the phosphate approaches completion; the analyses of water samples low in phosphate have been carried out with a rather greater degree of accuracy than heretofore, by using a more exact method of allowing for the reagent blank, by using weaker standard solutions and by ensuring that in nearly every case the analyses were performed on the day following that on which the water samples had been taken. When the cruise extended for two days this was not possible as regards samples taken on the first day. Furthermore, measurements have been made (Poole and Atkins, 1928) of the illumination, both aerial and submarine, obtaining when the samples were taken.