The IOC North Pacific expedition in spring (May 2002) sailed from Osaka, Japan, to Honolulu, Hawaii, and surveyed the region from roughly 22 to 50¿N and 147¿E to 158¿W. Nine stations were chosen to characterize three distinct water masses, as well as their boundary regions: the Kuroshio Current, the North Pacific subarctic gyre, and the North Pacific subtropical gyre. Grazing largely balanced growth at all stations, with an average net growth rate of 0.11 ¿ 0.16 d-1 (cell-based) and 0.06 ¿ 0.15 d-1 (chlorophyll-based). The stations could be distinguished, however, by phytoplankton community composition and growth response to nutrient additions (ammonium, phosphate, manganese, and iron). Nutrients were undetectable in surface waters of the Kuroshio Current, where a centric diatom-dominated bloom showed a significant growth response to added nutrients. Iron limitation was observed for the cyanobacteria Synechococcus at the two subarctic gyre stations; however, the photosynthetic eukaryotes, which dominated the photosynthetic biomass at these stations, were not nutrient-limited. Four oligotrophic subtropical gyre stations were dominated by photosynthetic bacteria (Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus) and small (<5 ¿m) eukaryotic autotrophs, which exhibited a dramatic increase in growth rate with macronutrient additions but displayed little or no increased growth with iron additions alone. Overall, the ratio of heterotroph consumer biomass to autotroph biomass was higher in the Prochlorococcus-dominated subtropical gyre sites (0.5) than the subarctic or Kuroshio Current sites (0.2--0.3).