Picoplankton dynamics and competition for nutrients in the Northern Ionian Sea.

Picoplankton includes both prokaryotes and eukaryote organisms of size <2micron. In aquatic microbial ecology, determining picoplanktonic densities is usually the first stage in the process of studying relationships between picoplankton and biochemical processes. In ths study we determined picoplankton and pico-phytoplankton densities (procaryotes and eukaryotes) and biomass, together with chlorophyll a, inorganic nutrients concentrations and the biochemical composition (lipids, protein) of dissolved organic matter at three sampling sites (Bosco Marziotta, Mar Piccolo and Porto Cesareo) of the Northern Ionian Sea (Italian coasts) characterised by different trophic conditions.