Coccolithophorids in the Phytoplankton of the Eastern
Bering Sea after the Anomalous Bloom of 1997

I. N. Sukhanova¹, M. V. Flint¹, T. E. Whitledge², and E. J. Lessard³

¹ Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

² School of Fishery and Marine Sciences, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, USA

³ School of Oceanography, Wisconsin State University, Seattle, USA

Received February 17, 2003

Abstract—Based on the results of the field observations in August 1998, July 2000, and August 2001, the com-
position and quantitative distribution of coccolithophorids in the middle domain of the Eastern Bering Sea shelf
between 5652 and 5919 N is characterized. The abundance, biomass, and size structure of the Emiliania hux-
leyi population as well as its role in the coccolithophorid community and in the phytocoenosis as a whole were
evaluated. The abundance of this species in the upper mixed layer in the bloom areas was 1–3 10⁶ cells/l and
its biomass made up 30–75 mg C/m³. The share of E. huxleyi in the total phytoplankton abundance and biomass
reached 98 and 84%, respectively. The significant spatial heterogeneity of the quantitative distribution and the
population size structure, as well as the asynchronism in the population development of E. huxleyi in the neigh-
boring parts of the bloom area, are shown. The period during which the population structure in a certain part of
the area develops from the domination of juvenile cells without coccoliths to the phase of active detritus forma-
tion with dying coccolithophorid cells involved may be estimated as two weeks. A conclusion is made that, after
the anomalous E. huxleyi bloom in 1997, mass development of coccolithophorids became a characteristic fea-
ture of the phytoplankton community’s seasonal succession in the middle domain of the eastern Bering Sea
shelf.

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