A mixed life-cycle stage bloom of Syracosphaera bannockii (Borsetti and Cati, 1976) Cros et al. 2000 (Bay of Biscay April 2010).

High concentrations (464 cells mL-1) of Syracosphaera bannockii have been identified for the first time, in the Bay of Biscay during April 2010. These high concentrations combined with coccolithophore community dominance (~87%) indicated that a bloom of S. bannockii had formed. While the bloom consisted mostly of heterococcolith coccospheres, both holococcolith coccospheres and holococcolith-heterococcolith combination coccospheres were observed. This is only the second time that combination coccospheres of S. bannockii have been observed.