Anomalous Blooming of Coccolithophorids
over the Eastern Bering Sea Shelf

I. N. Sukhanova and M. V. Flint

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

Received March 23, 1998

Abstract—Anomalous blooming of coccolithophorids in the eastern part of the Bering Sea occurred over an
area more than 200 000 km₂ and was observed from early July until November 1997. The sea surface tempera-
ture anomaly occurred during the bloom period; the temperature was 2.5–3.0°C above normal. The phytoplank-
ton composition during the blooming period was studied using the samples collected in the first days of October
in the coastal zone of Saint Paul Island (Pribilof Islands). The bloom was shown to be formed by one species
Emiliania huxleyi. The abundance of this species was as high as 2.1–2.8 mil. cells l^–1 and the biomass varied
from 1.1 to 1.5 mg l^–1. The contribution of this species to the total phytoplankton abundance and biomass was
99.8 and 99.2%, respectively. According to the phytoplankton data obtained in the same region in August
during the years with different temperature conditions (1992–1994), only single cells of coccolithophorids
occurred in phytoplankton. Diatoms were the dominating group; they contributed >93% to total phytoplankton
cells abundance and >96% to total biomass.

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