Summary
A number of stations were cancelled during the cruise. Some because of the bad weather, others due to the fact that parts of the anchoring from a buoy got stuck in one of the ships propellers, which caused cancellation of the cruise and a safety stop in Oxelösund prior to the detour to Lysekil. At Å17, the most westerly Skagerrak station and at Släggö at the coast, the phytoplankton diversity and chlorophyll concentrations were low which is normal for this month. The stations in the Kattegat had higher total cell concentrations. The chlorophyll concentrations at Anholt E gave an indication of a soon to be spring bloom. N14 Falkenberg did not give the same indication. A few species in low cell numbers were found at the Baltic phytoplankton stations. The dinoflagellate Peridiniella catenata and the diatom Chaetoceros castracanei that often are found in high cell numbers during spring bloom were present so they are ready to go as soon as the conditions are right. The threadlike cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon flosaquae was found at three out of five stations and the green algae Binuclearia lauterbornii was found at all five stations. The chlorophyll concentrations were normal for this month.