Surface summer phytoplankton pigment concentrations measured by HPLC during the SANAE-56 cruise in the Atlantic Southern Ocean between December 2016 and February 2017

Surface phytoplankton photosynthetic pigment concentrations were collected during the logistical austral summer cruise SANAE-56 from December 2016 to February 2017 on board the SA Agulhas II in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The cruise consisted of various legs that covered a transect between Cape Town and Antarctica (primarily on the zero meridian) and a transect between Antarctica and South Georgia crossing the Weddell Gyre and the South Sandwich Islands. Discrete seawater samples, for chlorophyll-a and accessory pigment analysis, were taken at relatively high (<1 degree) resolution from the ship's underway supply system (5-6m water depth) to determine the surface phytoplankton community abundance and structure. Filtered samples were analysed by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) at Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV – CNRS) according to Ras et al. 2008 (doi:10.5194/bg-5-353-2008).