статья в журнале

En

Physical Oceanography

ISSN:0928-5105
eSSN:1573-160X

2018

10.22449/1573-160X-2018-3-235-246

The results of defining the mass and numerical concentration both of total suspended matter and its organic and mineral fractions at the large-scale polygon in the northern part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean in summer, 1986 are represented. The samples were taken from the 3 m depth. To determine concentration and composition of the suspended matter, the method of converting the light scattering functions measured at the polygon was used. Distribution of concentrations of the suspended matter different fractions was compared with the water dynamics. The maximum values of the suspended matter concentration are observed in the regions of the current divergence and their cyclonic voracity. The source of the mineral suspended matter in the ocean regions remote from the continents are the aerosols as well as the phytoplankton species containing mineral particles on their shells, namely the silicon oxides (diatoms) and the carbonates (coccolithophorides). The data of biological investigations testify that both the mass development of diatoms at the polygon and maximum concentrations of the mineral suspended matter are observed in the equatorial region and in the area of the Countercurrent divergence. The mineral suspension relative content in the total mass concentration varies within 4 - 19%. As for quantity, the overwhelming majority of the total suspended matter (94 - 96%) consists of mineral particles. The average particle sizes are determined for the organic and mineral suspensions. Their distribution at the polygon correlates with the distribution of the mass concentration: in the regions with the low suspended matter concentration, the mean radius of the organic particles is high, whereas that of the mineral ones is small. Having been compared, the mean sizes of the organic particles calculated using the light scattering function and those of the phytoplankton cells defined due to a microscope demonstrate their nearly complete similarity.

LIGHT SCATTERING FUNCTION, ORGANIC AND MINERAL SUSPENDED MATTER, SIZES AND NUMBER OF PARTICLES

2018-12-12 15:49:00