Spatial variability of phytoplankton turnover in relation to physical processes in a coastal environment

For the near‐surface layer of an exposed coastal embayment, wind stress is shown to be a satisfactory index of turbulence as measured by high frequency current fluctuations. A strong coupling is demonstrated between this index of turbulence and the spatial variance of phytoplankton production efficiency ( P : B ). Physical processes dominate over biological and chemical processes in controlling phytoplankton variability for wind velocities greater than 5 m · s −1 , which occurred 40% of the time.