Biospheric Primary Production During an ENSO Transition

Behrenfeld, Michael J.; Randerson, James T.; McClain, Charles R.; Feldman, Gene C.; Los, S.O.; Tucker, Compton J.; Falkowski, Paul G.; Field, Christopher B.; Frouin, Robert; Esaias, Wayne E.; Kolber, Dorota; Pollack, N.

doi:10.1126/science.1055071

Cited by 546 publications

(348 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

332

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Further group-specific CO 2 fixation data collected at basin scales will be critical to assess the significance of these prymnesiophytes in global primary production. These data will also help to validate models that estimate ocean productivity using chlorophyll a-based fluorescence measurements (Behrenfeld et al, 2001). The next crucial step, beyond identification and assessment of their metabolic activities, will be to address the autoecology of the dominant photosynthetic eukaryotes by dissecting the biotic and abiotic factors that control their proliferation in the Ocean (Amann and Fuchs, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significant CO2 fixation by small prymnesiophytes in the subtropical and tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Global estimates indicate the oceans are responsible for approximately half of the carbon dioxide fixed on Earth. Organisms p5 lm in size dominate open ocean phytoplankton communities in terms of abundance and CO 2 fixation, with the cyanobacterial genera Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus numerically the most abundant and more extensively studied compared with small eukaryotes. However, the contribution of specific taxonomic groups to marine CO 2 fixation is still poorly known. In this study, we show that among the phytoplankton, small eukaryotes contribute significantly to CO 2 fixation (44%) because of their larger cell volume and thereby higher cell-specific CO 2 fixation rates. Within the eukaryotes, two groups, herein called Euk-A and Euk-B, were distinguished based on their flow cytometric signature. Euk-A, the most abundant group, contained cells 1.8±0.1 lm in size while Euk-B was the least abundant but cells were larger (2.8±0.2 lm). The Euk-B group comprising prymnesiophytes (73±13%) belonging largely to lineages with no close cultured counterparts accounted for up to 38% of the total primary production in the subtropical and tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean, suggesting a key role of this group in oceanic CO 2 fixation.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significant CO2 fixation by small prymnesiophytes in the subtropical and tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(c) Environmental covariates Considering how primary production is positively linked to the biological richness available to foraging predators [28,29], we investigated the effect of this environmental covariate. We suspected a priori the years with high primary production during active pregnancy (after blastocyst implantation) to be more profitable for females.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

O' mother where wert thou? Maternal strategies in the southern elephant seal: a stable isotope investigation

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Maternal effects are widespread in ecology and can alter the dynamics of a population. We investigated the impact of maternal foraging strategies on offspring weaning mass-a proxy of maternal foraging success and of offspring survival-in southern elephant seals on îles Kerguelen. Using 4 years of data, we modelled pup weaning mass as a two-component mixture and used blood stable isotope values to discriminate between maternal foraging strategies previously identified from bio-logging studies. Carbon isotope ratio was a strong predictor of weaning mass, but the relationship was non-monotonic in contrast to a priori expectations. Females foraging in the interfrontal zone weaned pups with a smaller mass compared with females foraging in Antarctic waters. Pup mass was positively correlated with a proxy of global primary production in the interfrontal zone for small weanlings. Maternal effects, via a poor foraging efficiency in the 1970s, may help explain the large population decrease observed at that time on îles Kerguelen because of an overall decrease in pup weaning mass, survival and subsequent recruitment.

show abstract

“…Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher Mar Ecol Prog Ser 352: 27-38, 2007 through phytoplankton photosynthesis in the ocean amounts to 50 Gt C yr -1 and is equivalent in magnitude to terrestrial primary production , Behrenfeld & Falkowski 1997, Behrenfeld et al 2001. Moreover, through the biological pump, a proportion of this carbon will be transferred to the ocean floor via sedimentation of organic material (Longhurst & Harrison 1989).…”

Section: Abstract: Response · Primary Production · Remote Sensing Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DMS (dimethylsulphide), which triggers the formation of clouds (see review by Malin et al 1992), O 2 , which is essential for heterotrophic organisms, and CO 2 , which is a major contributor to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Carbon assimilated through phytoplankton photosynthesis in the ocean amounts to 50 Gt C yr -1 and is equivalent in magnitude to terrestrial primary production , Behrenfeld & Falkowski 1997, Behrenfeld et al 2001. Moreover, through the biological pump, a proportion of this carbon will be transferred to the ocean floor via sedimentation of organic material (Longhurst & Harrison 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computation of primary production from remote sensing of ocean colour at the northwestern Atlantic C-SOLAS Lagrangian site

Forget¹,

Fuentes-Yaco²,

Sathyendranath³

et al. 2007

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At the C-SOLAS Lagrangian Study site, the phytoplankton community was dominated by diatoms in declining bloom conditions, which were characterised by a decrease in primary production over time. Measurements of primary production were performed using photosynthesis-light experiments and simulated in situ incubations. Several methods were used to assign photosynthetic parameters for estimation of primary production from remote-sensing of ocean colour: (1) the nearestneighbour method (NNM), (2) a temperature-dependent model, (3) an iterative approach to retrieve photosynthetic parameters from in situ measurements of phytoplankton production, and (4) average values of measured parameters. Owing to the declining status of the diatom population and its patchy distribution, the magnitude of primary production measured from in situ incubations was highly variable. Under bloom conditions, all methods underestimated production compared with results of simulated in situ measurements; however, the NNM provided the closest estimates to the in situ measurements. In the declining bloom phase, the NNM overestimated primary production, whereas the iterative method returned estimates of production in good agreement with the in situ observations. In conditions characterized by mixed-phytoplankton populations, the NNM returned estimates in agreement with the observations. A new method is proposed for classifying image pixels using criteria accessible to remote sensing, according to the phase of the diatom bloom (bloom versus declining conditions) and according to community composition (diatom versus mixed population). Upon separating the database used for parameter assignment into 2 parts, one representing the general phytoplankton community and the other representing declining diatom conditions, estimates of chlorophyll a-normalised water-column production were in good agreement with in situ observations. KEY WORDS: Response · Primary production · Remote sensing of ocean colour · Photosynthetic parametersResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher Mar Ecol Prog Ser 352: 27-38, 2007 through phytoplankton photosynthesis in the ocean amounts to 50 Gt C yr -1 and is equivalent in magnitude to terrestrial primary production , Behrenfeld & Falkowski 1997, Behrenfeld et al. 2001. Moreover, through the biological pump, a proportion of this carbon will be transferred to the ocean floor via sedimentation of organic material (Longhurst & Harrison 1989). Quantification of primary production in the ocean is therefore of central importance to programmes such as SOLAS.Remote sensing of ocean colour is an effective method for computing primary production on a global scale , Antoine et al. 1996, Behrenfeld & Falkowski 1997. The method relies on estimation of chl a at the surface, estimation of the attenuation coefficient for downwelling light and the assignment of parameters describing the biomass profile at each image pixel, as well as the photosynthetic response to available light . The first 2 est...

show abstract

Biospheric Primary Production During an ENSO Transition

Cited by 546 publications

References 29 publications

Significant CO2 fixation by small prymnesiophytes in the subtropical and tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean

Significant CO2 fixation by small prymnesiophytes in the subtropical and tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean

O' mother where wert thou? Maternal strategies in the southern elephant seal: a stable isotope investigation

Computation of primary production from remote sensing of ocean colour at the northwestern Atlantic C-SOLAS Lagrangian site

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About