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ABSTRACT
Subsurface chlorophyll maximum (SCM) are common phenomena in variety of environmental, from fresh water, brackish water, estuaries, shelf areas, the coastal zone to open ocean. It is now known that the chlorophyll maximum at the subsurface layer occurs widely in water where the water column is stratified. In permanent stratified tropical water, therefore, the SCM is expected to be a year round phenomenon. In higher latitudes, where there are occasional vertical mixing of the water column due to seasonal surface cooling or strong winds, the SCM will be restricted during a particular period of the year, such as in the summer or between spring and autumn. The Boka Kotorska Bay is semi-enclosed basin, located in the south-easter Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea). The weekly changes in chlorophyll a and physico-chemical parameters were investigated in the period September 2008 to March 2009. Maximum phytoplankton biomass (11.13 mg m−3 chlorophyll a) was observed on 2m depth in February nearly the pycnocline. The good correspondence of SCM with occurrence of nitrate clearly indicates that the phytoplankton that make up the SCM depended highly on nitrate, which is supplied mainly by diffusional process from depth below the SCM.