• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2001

The vertical distributions of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, chlorophyll, and primary production were investigated within the top 200m water depth in the south Pacific Ocean in February,2000. The study area ($24^{\circ}-41^{\circ}S,\;81^{\circ}-168^{\circ}W$) can be hydrologically divided into two regions. Upwelling was actively occurring in the eastern region of the $110^{\circ}S$ line, meanwhile it was not active in the western region. Accordingly, chemical properties in the surface waters were different between the two regions; nitrate+nitrite and phosphate concentrations were much higher in the eastern region than in the western region due to the active upwelling, but silicate concentration was higher in the western region. Among the nutrients, the major element influencing primary production was also different between the two regions; silicon would be a major element influencing primary production in the eastern region, but nitrogen may act as a major element for primary production in the western region. Primary production showed similar values in the two regions in spite of the large differences of nutrient concentrations in the surface waters, but the total chlorophyll integrated within the 200 m water depth was almost twice as much as in the western region than that in the eastern legion.