Phytoplankton blooms in the Pacific Arctic have been characterized as a huge single bloom in spring. However, several studies have reported recent increases in the occurrence of fall blooms during the period after dissipation of the spring bloom. Here, we explored spatiotemporal variations in the occurrence of fall blooms in the region, using satellite remote-sensing data for 2003-2017. Seasonal time-series variation in satellite-derived chlorophyll-a concentrations (chla) was modeled using a Gaussian function to distinguish whether a peak in chla was evident in fall; an occurrence of a fall bloom was recognized if the model detected the presence of a chla peak in fall. In addition, phytoplankton size structure was estimated from the satellite data to examine the influence of fall blooms on seasonal variations in the size structure. The results indicate that fall blooms occurred in a wide area of the Pacific Arctic, and larger phytoplankton were predominant during fall blooms relative to the phytoplankton present before/after the bloom or in the absence of a fall bloom. Examining interannual variation in occurrences of fall blooms revealed clear increasing and decreasing trends in the southern Chukchi Sea and the St. Lawrence Island polynya region, respectively, possibly associated with temporal variations in atmospheric forcing as well as in the water-column structure. Because the cell sizes of phytoplankton largely determine their sinking rate, temporal trends in the occurrence of fall blooms modulating seasonal variations in phytoplankton size structure could significantly influence marine ecosystems. These results suggest that spatiotemporal monitoring of phytoplankton communities not only in spring but also after the spring period or the dissipation of the spring bloom would improve our understanding about processes causing variations within marine ecosystems, as might occur in the Pacific Arctic.

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The impact of mesoscale eddies on phytoplankton communities attracts considerable research attention because phytoplankton play numerous roles in marine ecosystems. Using remote sensing techniques, this study considered a synoptic relationship between phytoplankton size structure, which is a determinant of energy transfer efficiency in marine ecosystems, and mesoscale eddies, which are ubiquitous ocean features. We found clear spatial variation in the impacts of mesoscale eddies on phytoplankton size structure; phytoplankton communities with larger cell sizes were supported by anticyclonic eddies in oligotrophic regions and by cyclonic eddies in eutrophic regions. Differences in the phytoplankton size structure within these two types of mesoscale eddies became greater, accompanied by interannual trends in the phytoplankton size structure for 2003–2014. Our findings are the first to demonstrate the important linkage between mesoscale eddies and phytoplankton size structure on a global scale; this new knowledge might help better predict variability in marine ecosystems.

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