Dependence of dissolved carbohydrate concentrations upon small scale nanoplankton and bacterioplankton distributions in the western Sargasso Sea

Significant correlations between trophic components of the <20 m microbial plankton and the concentrations of total dissolved carbohydrate (TCHO) and polysaccharide (PCHO) have been found at two drogued buoy stations which were sampled at 3 or 4-h intervals over diel cycles. An attempt was made to sample on two pre-selected isotherms (approximating isopycnals) at each station. Significant inverse correlations of TCHO and of PCHO with numbers of phototrophic nanoplankton (PNAN) were found along both isotherms at a station off the Carolina coast. Off central Florida, TCHO and/or PCHO were significant multiple linear functions of PNAN, heterotrophic bacterioplankton (BAC) and sometimes heterotrophic nanoplankton (HNAN) counts. Partial regression coefficients for PNAN were always negative and those for HNAN were positive. Inverse trends dominated the relations of BAC with PCHO and TCHO. The combined data from the two stations (300 nautical miles apart) produced very similar multiple linear relations. This suggests that the observed relationships are real, resulting from general physiological processes and interactions of the microbial plankton groups rather than from chance occurrences at a particular station, and that the combined activities of the <20 m plankton actively regulate dissolved carbohydrate concentrations in the Sargasso Sea.