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During the spring bloom in 1988, the dynamics of planktonic carbon flow were studied weekly in the euphotic layer in the northern Baltic. The spring bloom developed after the formation of a s l~g h t vertical salinity gradient near the surface at the end of April, and a peak in phytoplankton primary productivity and biomass (dominated by the dinoflagellate Peridiniella catenata) was reached about 1 wk later. The biomass of all heterotrophic compartments, especially that of bactena and copepods, increased strongly durlng the peak and declining phases of the algal bloom, showing that their success was closely linked with the bloom. During the whole bloonl period, the integral pnmary production (I4C incorporation) was 45.5 g C m-', and 'new' (NO<-N-based) production contributed about 80% of this value. The rotifers-copepods grazing chain and the bacteria-heterotrophic nanoflagellates-ciliates 'microbial loop' consumed directly about the same amount (3.5 g C m-') of phytoplankton carbon. Algae accounted for 64% of the total carbon consumption of zooplankton. Sedimentation corresponded to 72% of the primary production. The sum of algal biomass increase and loss factors (exudation, grazing and sedimentation) was 94% of the integral primary production, which supports our conclusion that there is a strong imbalance between primary and secondary production in the vernal planktonic food web off the SW coast of Finland.

Sustainability education (SE) is included in school curricula to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development (SD) into all education. This study investigates lower secondary school subject teachers as educators for sustainability. A survey was used to study the perceptions of 442 subject teachers from 49 schools in Finland. There were significant differences between the subject teachers' perceptions of their SE competence, and the frequency with which they used different dimensions of SE (ecological, economic, social, well-being, cultural) in their teaching varied. Teachers' age had a small effect, but gender, school, and its residential location were nonsignificant factors. Teachers could be roughly classified into three different subgroups according to their perceptions of the role of SE in their teaching; those who considered three SE dimensions rather often and used holistic sustainability approaches in their teaching (biology, geography, history); those who considered two or three dimensions often but were not active in holistic teaching (mother tongue, religion, visual arts, crafts, music, physical and health education, and home economics) and those who used one SE dimension or consider only one holistic approach in their teaching (mathematics, physics, chemistry and language). Subject teachers' awareness of their SE competence is important to encourage them to plan and implement discipline-based and interdisciplinary SE in their teaching. The specific SE expertise of subject teachers should be taken into account in teacher training and education.

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