Autumn living coccolithophores in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea

An investigation was carried out on living coccolithophores （LCs） distribution in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea from October 17 to November 24, 2011. A total of 223 samples from different depths were col-lected at 48 stations. Totally 18 taxa belonging to coccolithophyceae were identified using a polarized micro-scope at the 1 000× magnification. The maximum species abundance was found at the outside of Transect P. The dominated species wereGephyrocapsa oceanica, Emiliania huxleyi,Helicosphaera carteri,andAlgiros-phaera robusta.The abundance of coccoliths and cells ranged 0-2 965.73 coccoliths/mL, and 0-119.16 cells/mL, with the average values of 471.00 coccoliths/mL and 23.42 cells/mL, respectively. The LCs in surface layer were mainly observed on the coastal belt and middle part of the survey area. The comparison among Transects A, F, P and E indicated lower species diversity and less abundance in the Yellow Sea than those of the East China Sea. The highest abundance of LCs was found in transect F and P. The coccolith abundance increased slightly from surface to bottom in the water column, but the highest value of the cell abundance was observed in the depth of 10-30 m. Temperature, depth and nutrient concentration were suggested as the major environmental factors controlling the distribution and species composition of LCs in the studying area based on canonical correspondence analysis （CCA）.

Spring and autumn living coccolithophores in the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea,China

The living coccolithophores （LCs） are an important class of calcified taxa of phytoplankton functional groups, and major producers of marine biogenic inorganic carbon, playing an important role in the marine carbon cycle. In this study, we report the two-demensional abundance, composition of LCs and its correlation with the environmental parameters in spring and autumn, in order to understand the ecological role of LCs in the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea. In spring, totally 9 taxa belonging to coccolithophyceae were identified using a polarized microscope at the 1 000x magnification. The dominant species were Emiliania huxleyi, Gephyrocapsa oceanica, Helicosphaera carteri, and Calcidiscus leptoporus. The abundance of coccosphores and coccoliths ranged 0-7.72 cells/mL, and 0-216.09 coccoliths/mL, with the average values of 0.21 cells/mL, and 11.36 coccoliths/mL, respectively. The Emiliania huxleyi distribution was similar to Gephyrocapsa oceanica. The highest abundance of coccoliths was observed in the east of Shandong Peninsula in northern Yellow Sea, whereas Helicosphaera carteri distributed more widely. Emiliania huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica were the two predominant species in LCs with higher abundances. The distribution of LCs was similar to that of coccoliths. In autumn, 14 taxa belonging to coccolithophyceae were identified with dominant species as Emiliania huxleyi, Gephyrocapsa oceanica, Helicosphaera carteri, Calcidiscus leptoporus and Oolithotus fragilis. The abundance of coccosphores and coccoliths ranged 0-24.69 cells/mL, and 0-507.15 coccoliths/mL, with the average values of 1.47 cells/mL, and 55.89 coccoliths/mL, respectively. The highest abundance of coccoliths was located in Qingdao coastal waters and south of the survey area. The distribution of LCs was similar to the coccoliths; in addition, LCs presented large abundance in the east of the central Yellow Sea area.

Living coccolithophores in the western Pacific Ocean with mesoscale eddies

Living coccolithophores(LCs)are regarded as a group of calcifiers and play important roles in global carbon cycle.This study used microscopic observations of LCs in the western Pacific Ocean to investigate their community structure and biodiversity,especially to test whether local physical traits(mesoscale eddies)could explain their biogeographic distributions during autumn of 2017.The coccolithophore calcite inventory based on carbon-volume transformation was estimated in this study.A total of 28 taxa of coccospheres and 19 types of coccoliths were identified from 161 samples.Gephyrocapsa oceanica was the most predominant species in all the coccolithophore community,followed by Florisphaera profunda,Emiliania huxleyi,Umbilicosphaera sibogae,Gladiolithusflabellatus and Umbellosphaera tenuis.The abundance of coccospheres and coccoliths ranged from 0 to 26.8×10^(3)cells/L and from 0 to 138.5×10^(3)coccoliths/L,averaged at 4.2×10^(3)cells/L and 10.9×10^(3)coccoliths/L,respectively.This study indicated that coccolithophore community in the survey area can be clustered into four groups.Three ecological niches of coccolithophores were characterized by their vertical profiles and multivariate statistical analysis.Coccolithophore abundance and species composition were remarkably different among warm-eddy region,G.oceanica dominated warm-eddy region,while F.profunda dominated warm-eddy and none-eddy region.The average values of estimated particulate inorganic carbon,particulate organic carbon were0.197μg/L and 0.140μg/L,respectively.The current field study widened the dataset of coccolithophores in western Pacific Ocean.