Cycle annuel du phytoplancton et de la production primaire dans les mers tropicales

In this review, tropical seas are limited geographically by a minimum surface temperature of 22°C throughout the year. The relevant literature consists of nearly a hundred references, corresponding to about 45 stations or areas; most of these are neritic or subject to land mass or island mass effects; few studies have been made in both oceanic and neritic waters of the Pacific Ocean. In neritic waters, as a rule, an annual cycle of species composition and intensity of primary production is observed: seasonal variations are related to hydrography (currents, upwelling) or climate (winds, rains, monsoons); some cases reported are doubtful due to insufficient or only qualitative data; so far, not a single example can serve as a proof for the absence of an annual cycle. Oceanic data are much too meagre to allow a generalization to be drawn; seasonal, hydrographic, and climatic changes must often also be taken into account; in regions of permanent stratification, productivity can be expected to remain at a low and continuous level throughout the year, but direct evidence of this is still lacking. In temperate and cold waters, seasons are of world-wide significance due to changes in the relation between euphotic and mixing layers' depths, i.e., in availability of light and nutrients for phytoplankton growth; thus general models of annual cycles can be described. In tropical seas, on the other hand, seasons are only regional and ecological factors can act in opposite ways according to time and space, so that no world-wide picture can be worked out.