An overview of the biological/oceanographic survey by the RTV Umitaka-MaruIII off Adelie Land, Antarctica in January-February 1996

suggesting the need for constructing local algorithms appropriate For Antar ctic Waters. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.suggesting the need for constructing local algorithms appropriate For Antarctic Waters . (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.suggesting the need fo r constructing local algorithms appropriate For Antarctic Waters. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.A biological/oceanographic survey was conducted around the Antarctic Divergence AD) off Adelie Land, Antarct ica by the RTV Umitaka-Maru III of Tokyo University of Fisheries in the 199 5/1996 Austral summer. Investigations were included (1) characteristics of oceanic structure, (2) primary production and related upper water mass stru cture, (3) phytoplankton community structure, (4) zooplankton community str ucture, (5) distribution of Antarctic krill, and (6) optical properties and development of biooptical algorithms for future use of ocean color remote sensing in monitoring phytoplankton biomass. The existence of dense water o n the continental slope suggests that the survey area is one of major sourc es of the Antarctic Bottom Water. We observed a southward meandering of ACC , which allowed the warmer, saline offshore water to intrude south in the e astern part of the area. This east-west gradient in water mass seemed to in fluence the formation of the local trophic structure in the research area. In the western area, primary productivity was high, and diatoms and copepod s dominated, particularly around the AD. The eastern part, however, showed low primary productivity, with a relative dominance of pico- and nanophytop lankton and high abundance of salps. Antarctic krill was distributed mostly in the south of the AD, and its biomass was low compared to previous recor ds, both from adjacent areas and from other Antarctic regions. A biooptical algorithm obtained from this study did not agree with the conventional glo bal algorithm,suggesting the need for constructing local algorithms appropr iate for Antartic Waters.(C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.All rights reserved.