Seasonal Variability of the Surface Chlorophyll a
in the Drake Passage

A. B. Demidov, V. I. Gagarin, and A. V. Grigoriev

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

E-mail: demspa@rambler.ru

Received September 22; in final form, December 1, 2008

Abstract—The seasonal variability of the surface chlorophyll “a” (Chl-s) was studied for five different hydro-
logical areas in the Drake Passage. The data were collected both in the field (December 2001–March 2002, and
November 2007) and by satellite observations. One maximum of Chl-s was registered for the area northward
of the Antarctic Polar Front in November 2007. This maximum moves southwards to the Antarctic and Conti-
nental Antarctic regions in December and January, respectively. The major factors affecting the phytoplankton
growth were analyzed, namely, the decrease of the mixed water layer’s depth due to jogging during the austral
late spring and summer and seasonal water temperature increase. The comparison of the field and satellite data
allows us to conclude that the standard OC4v4 algorithm usually underreports the Chl-s concentration when it
exceed 0.2 mg m^–3.

DOI: 10.1134/S0001437010030045

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