Quantitative relationship between flagellate abundance and suspended particle density in Huanghai Sea and East China Sea in summer

Abstract

An investigation was carried out in the Huanghai Sea and the East China Sea to study the quantitative relationship between the abundance of flagellates and the density of suspended particles in the summer of 2001. The results show that the abundance of flagellates varies from 44 similar to 12 600 cell/cm(3), and flagellates sometimes constitutes a significant part of suspended particles. The size-spectra of suspended particles can be divided into four categories: flat spectrum, humped spectrum, plankton spectrum and mixed spectrum. In general, the abundance of flagellates varies in proportion to the density of suspended particles. However, their quantitative relations reveal different characteristics in the seawater samples of different types of particle-size spectrum. This is only a preliminary study of the quantitative relationship between flagellates and suspended particles, which might lead to a potential convenient approach to the estimation of flagellate abundance in the sea.