The primary productivity in the South China Sea, Area III: Western Philippines

Abstract

In this paper the relative concentrations and vertical distributions of primary production were investigated off Western Philippines of the South China Sea during tradewinds from April 15 to May 11, 1998. Primary productivity measurements were conducted using conventional "light-and-dark bottle" oxygen method. The net primary production estimates at ten (10) different stations established between 19° 59.2'N, 119° 58.7'E and 11° 13.5'N, 118° 03.1'E ranged from 0.10 ~ 1.53 g C m^-2 d¹. The result suggests that the present net production estimates in the area is remarkably higher than the estimates from other parts of the South China Sea (viz., northern coastal waters off Taiwan and southwestern parts of the SCS which included marine waters of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia). The highest primary production occurred at the upper 60-m well-mixed layer of station 1 in the northwesternmost part of the area. Results have shown that some other hydrographic and chemical parameters (viz., temperature, salinity, light and fluorescence) greatly complicate and may not coherent with the analyses of relative distribution and abundance of primary production in the area.