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COMPARATIVE DATA ON PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY AND
MINERAL PHOSPHORUS UPTAKE IN THE EUPHOTIC ZONE
OF THE MEDITERRANEAN AND BLACK SEA
 
 
A. S. Bologa 1), A. V. Parkhomenko 2), Victoria Smocov 1) 
1) Romanian Marine Research Institute Constanta
2) Institute of Biology of Southern Seas, Sevastopol USRR 


Abstract
During May-July 1985 the plancktonic primary productivity
of four different sectors of the Mediterranean Sea ranged
between 0.5 to 11.3 mg C m-3 day-1 and 0.06 to 0.48 g C
m-2 d-1, and in one sector of the Black Sea between 9.4 to
14.7 and 0.78 respectively. Similar phosphate -P concentra-
tions in the water column to 90 m were found; the P concen-
tration in the euphotic zone (i.e. to 90 m) did not exceed
0.016 g at P 1-1 in the Mediterranean, and 0.013 in the
Black Sea. The maximum assimilation rate of P by micro-
plankton communities in the Mediterranean occurred at the
lower limit of the euphotic zone, but in the Black Sea it
was within the euphotic zone at 10 m depth.