Summary
All of the stations surrounding Gotland and the stations in the Eastern Baltic could not be visited due to the bad weather conditions. The spring bloom was ongoing in the Kattegat and Skagerrak areas at the time of the cruise in March. Diatoms dominated the samples and chlorophyll concentrations were high. Skeletonema marinoi was the most dominant diatom. The diatom genera Chaetoceros and Thalassiosira were abundant in both species and cell numbers. The integrated (0-20 m) chlorophyll concentrations were above normal for this month at most stations in the Kattegat and Skagerrak and chlorophyll fluorescence maxima in these areas were caused by diatoms. There were quite a few diatoms for this area in the Southern Baltic phytoplankton samples. Especially at REF M1V1 where it looked as if the spring bloom was just around the corner. Cell numbers were low though and the integrated chlorophyll concentrations were normal for this month.