Variations of phytoplankton productivity and biomass over an annual cycle in Saanich Inlet, a British Columbia fjord

Saanich Inlet is a highly productive temperate fjord with the capability to record inter-annual patterns of water-column primary production in undisturbed laminated sediments. We investigated spatial and temporal variations in primary productivity, total and size-fractionated phytoplankton chl a, dissolved nutrients, temperature and salinity at the head and mouth of Saanich Inlet from May 2005 to November 2006. New primary productivity was also measured from May to October 2006. During the growing season (spring, summer and fall), primary productivity was 1.5 times higher at the mouth than at the head of Saanich Inlet and, averaged across stations, total productivity was 460 g C m−2 y−1. Average new productivity was 53% and 58% of total primary productivity at the head and mouth of the inlet, respectively, and during the growing season micro-phytoplankton (>20 μm; mainly diatoms) was the most abundant size-class of phytoplankton. These rates of primary production are as high as or higher than those measured in other fjords, possibly because of a tidally-driven fortnightly gravity exchange that supplies nutrients to surface waters that enhance biological production when nutrients would otherwise be limiting. This exchange delivers nutrients at least as far inland as the head station, while nutrients associated with an eddy near the mouth may be the cause of even higher productivity there. We discuss the impact of these nutrient sources to Saanich Inlet on the records of paleoproduction generated from two Ocean Drilling Program cores extracted from this fjord, and suggest that the fortnightly exchange buffers variations in nutrient supply occurring on sub-decadal or decadal scales.