Authors: F Borghini A Colacevich R Bargagli
Publish Date: 2007/04/04
Volume: 30, Issue: 9, Pages: 1173-1182
Abstract
Total concentrations of algal pigments organic C C N P and S were determined in surface sediments from the littoral zone of 21 lakes in icefree areas of northern Victoria Land Antarctica with different climatic and environmental conditions Concentrations of major ions and nutrients were also determined in water samples from the same lakes The latter samples had extremely variable chemical compositions however all the lakes resulted oligotrophic Pigment concentrations in surface sediments were comparable to those reported for other Antarctic lakes and lower than those in oligotrophic lakes at lower latitudes Cyanophyta Chlorophyta and Bacillariophyta were the main taxa identified These taxa correspond to those reported in previous microscopybased studies on Antarctic phytoplankton and phytobenthos Discriminant Function Analysis and Canonical Correspondence Analysis of data indicate that the distribution of pigments in these Victoria Land lakes depends mainly on their geographical location particularly the distance from the sea and nutrient statusThe study is a contribution to the SCAR EBA Programme and was financed by the Italian National Programme for Research in Antarctica PNRA We thank Tancredi Caruso for precious help during statistical elaboration of data and Dominic Hodgson for valuable comments and suggestions on the earlier version of the manuscript
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