In addition, temporal variations in the vertical structure of attenuation were much smaller in the spring. The phytoplankton community was generally shifted towards larger cell sizes during spring. The composition of the largest phytoplankton size classes varied over the 3 week cruise. Several species of the dinoflagellate Ceratium were present throughout, with initially high abundances of the diatom Coscinodiscus. Concentrations of these diatoms decreased dramatically after the first storm, while chains of the diatom Chaetoceros sp. became abundant.
Preliminary analysis indicates that primary production was also higher in the spring.