SGER: Complex Pelagic Interactions in the Southern Ocean: Deciphering the Antarctic Paradox

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The primary goal of the proposed multidisciplinary project is to quantify, examine, modeland validate the complex interactions, involving direct, indirect and feedback effects,that regulate the planktonic food web in the coastal waters of the Southern Ocean with theaim of elucidating the causes underlying the low phytoplankton biomass and productiondespite the high nutrient availability there. In particular, the project will evaluatethe feedback mechansisms induced through the role of ammonium, largely released byaggregations of herbivorous zooplankton present in the Southern Ocean, krill specifically,on the resistance to UV stress by the phytoplanktonic community and, in particular,effects on the nitrogen incorporation rates, both ammonium and nitrate, and the subsequentdevelopment of phytoplankton blooms. The project will not only address the problemexperimentally, but will also consider the complex interactions in the context of theheterogeneous landscape, dominated by small parcels of water, that provides the scenarioon which the complex interactions occur. This project will be conducted through ashore-based (Juan Carlos I) operation in 2004 and a subsequent oceanographic cruise (R/VHesp rides) in 2005.