Abstract. Since the damming of the Nile, the Rh6ne River is the main freshwater and sediment supplier to the Mediterranean Sea. We estimated for the period 1987-1996, the dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOC and POC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and total suspended matter (

The effect of phosphate (P), nitrate (N), and organic carbon (C, glucose) enrichment on heterotrophic bacterial production was examined along two longitudinal transects covering the whole Mediterranean Sea during June and September 1999. During these cruises, integrated bacterial production ranged from 11 to 349 mgC m(-2) d(-1) for the 0-150 m layer. P was found to stimulate bacterial production (BP) in 13 out of 18 experiments, in the eastern and in the western Mediterranean Sea. Organic carbon stimulation of bacterial production was observed at two stations in the Alboran Sea, where the highest bacterial production was recorded (216 and 349 mg C m(-2) d(-1)) and in the Sicily Strait. Maximum rates of alkaline phosphatase (AP) increased from the Alboran to the Levantine Sea whereas AP turnover time decreased. Moreover, alkaline phosphatase activity was not systematically reduced following additions of P. In cases of P limitation, however, the alkaline phosphatase activity to bacterial production ratio was severely reduced in the P and NPC enrichments. Generally, the addition of the limiting factor--whether P or C--had a synchronous stimulating effect on bacterial production and ectoaminopeptidase activity and induced a decline in the amino acid respiration percentage. At two selected stations in the eastern and northwestern Mediterranean, response to enrichment was tested on vertical profiles. Bacteria shifted from P to C limitation at a depth where soluble reactive phosphorus was still undetectable, but corresponding to a strong increase in alkaline phosphatase turnover time. Our results showed that values of AP turnover time lower than 100 h corresponded to situations of P limitation of bacterial production.

The main outputs of a multidisciplinary and integrated studies are summarised. The results incorporate the latest biogeochemical researches, at basin scale, in the Aegean Sea (including thermohaline circulation studies, SPM dynamics, mass and energy fluxes, acknowledge biochemical processes in the euphotic and the benthic layer and benthic response to downward fluxes). The data were acquired within five (seasonal) research cruises, during 1997-1998. Data analysis and evaluation hence provided important new information on the functional processes of the Aegean ecosystem. In terms of water circulation, no new deep water formation in the Aegean Sea was observed, during 1997-1998, but rather intermediate water, due mainly to the mild winter conditions. All the biochemical parameters of the euphotic zone (nutrients, Particulate Organic Carbon (POC), chlorophyll-a, phytoplankton, primary and bacterial production), although high in the N. Aegean Sea reflect clearly the highly oligotrophic character of the Aegean Sea. In the N. Aegean, microbial food web was the main pathway of carbon, whereas in the S. Aegean, the food web could be classified as multivorous. An important Black Sea Water (BSW) signal was observed in the dissolved phase; this was especially pronounced in the Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC), Mn and to a lesser degree to Cd, Cu and Ni concentrations. The downward material fluxes are higher in the N. Aegean, relative to the S. Aegean. Substantially higher values of near-bottom mass fluxes were measured in the deep basins of the N. Aegean, implying significant deep lateral fluxes of POM. The N. Aegean could be classified as a ''continental margin'' ecosystem, whilst the S. Aegean is a typical ''oceanic margin'' environment. There is a close relationship and, consequently, coupling between the near-bottom mass fluxes and the accumulation rates of organic matter (OM), with the near-bottom mineralisation, bioturbation, redox potential, oxygen consumption rates, the sediment microbiological and enzymatic activity and the meio-macro-and mega fauna abundances in the

No abstract

The proverbial blue colour of the Mediterranean reflects some of the most extreme oligotrophic waters in the world. Sea-surface Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) satelhte data show the relatively clear, pigment poor, surface waters of the Mediterranean with a generally increasing oligotrophy eastward, apparent even from space. Integrated over depth, however, the east and west Mediterranean show similar amounts of phytoplankton and bacterial biomass. By contrast, primary production and bacterial production are 2 to 3 times lower in the eastern Mediterranean than in the west. However, the relationship between bacterial production and primary production in the east and west are significantly different. While bacterial production is hrectly proportional to primary production in the east, in the west it increases as approximately the square root of primary production. This suggests that the bacteria in the west are relatively decoupled from local contemporaneous primary production. In contrast, the gradient of close to 1 in the log bacterial production versus log primary production relationship in the east suggests less temporal decoupling and, therefore, less seasonal accumulation of DOC. In addition, the constant proportionahty between bacterial and primary production of 0.22, whlch, if all primary products are respired, gives an estimated geometric mean bacteria growth efficiency of 22% (95% confidence limits of 17 and 29%) for data in the eastern Mediterranean. Our data suggest that the degree of bacteria-phytoplankton coupling has an important effect on apparent trends between bacterial and phytoplankton production in high frequency data. The combination of low primary production and bacterial dominance of secondary production in the east is also of significance as it could account for the low fisheries production, the low vertical flux of material and low biomass of benthic organisms in the region.

Abstract. We investigated the identity of the limiting nutrient of the pelagic microbial food web in the Mediterranean Sea using nutrient manipulated microcosms during summer 2008. Experiments were carried out with surface waters at the center of anticyclonic eddies in the Western Basin, the Ionian Basin, and the Levantine Basin. In situ, the ratio of N to P was always higher in both dissolved and particulate organic fractions compared to the Redfield ratio, suggesting a relative P-starvation. In each experiment, four different treatments in triplicates (addition of ammonium, phosphate, a combination of both, and the unamended control) were employed and chemical and biological parameters monitored throughout a 3-4 day incubation. Temporal changes of turnover time of phosphate and ATP, and alkaline phosphatase activity during the incubation suggested that the phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryotes (Hprok) communities were not P-limited at the sites. Furthermore, Correspondence to: T. Tanaka (tsuneo.tanaka@obs-vlfr.fr) statistical comparison among treatments at the end of the incubation did not support a hypothesis of P-limitation at the three study sites. In contrast, primary production was consistently limited by N, and Hprok growth was not limited by N nor P in the Western Basin, but N-limited in the Ionian Basin, and N and P co-limited in the Levantine Basin. Our results demonstrated the gap between biogeochemical features (an apparent P-starved status) and biological responses (no apparent P-limitation). We question the general notion that Mediterranean surface waters are limited by P alone during the stratified period.

Abstract-Experimental work during a cruise along a W-E transect in the Mediterranean Sea suggests that (1) orthophosphate concentrations in the upper photic zone show a decreasing trend from the west to the east reaching levels well below 1 nM and (2) microorganisms in the 0.6-2-m size fraction, probably Synechococcus, have, in addition to high affinity for orthophosphate, significantly higher maximum uptake rates than heterotrophic bacteria or eukaryotic algae. These specific advantages concerning orthophosphate uptake at low (Ͻ5 nM) as well as at relatively high (5-25 nM) concentrations could explain both general Synechococcus abundance in P-depleted environments and transient blooms of this species in the open ocean where episodic orthophosphate nanopulse events are likely to occur.

Abstract.Iron is an essential nutrient involved in a variety of biological processes in the ocean, including photosynthesis, respiration and dinitrogen fixation. Atmospheric deposition of aerosols is recognized as the main source of iron for the surface ocean. In high nutrient, low chlorophyll areas, it is now clearly established that iron limits phytoplankton productivity but its biogeochemical role in low nutrient, low chlorophyll environments has been poorly studied. We investigated this question in the unexplored southeast Pacific, arguably the most oligotrophic area of the global ocean. Situated far from any continental aerosol source, the atmospheric iron flux to this province is amongst the lowest of the world ocean. Here we report that, despite low dissolved iron concentrations (∼0.1 nmol l −1 ) across the whole gyre (3 stations located in the center and at the western and the eastern edges), primary productivity are only limited by iron availability at the border of the gyre, but not in the center. The seasonal stability of the gyre has apparently allowed for the development of populations acclimated to these extreme oligotrophic conditions. Moreover, despite clear evidence of nitrogen limitation in the central gyre, we were unable to measure dinitrogen fixation in our experiments, even after iron and/or phosphate additions, and cyanobacterial nif H gene abundances were extremely low compared to the North Pacific Gyre. The South Pacific gyre is therefore unique with respect to the physiological status of its phytoplankton populations.