MEASURING PHOTOSYNTHETIC ACTION SPECTRA OF NATURAL PHYTOPLANKTON POPULATIONS¹

Abstract

The photosynthetic response, defined as the initial slope of the photosynthesis‐irradiance curve, was determined spectrally (every 25 nm from 400 to 675 nm; 25 nm half‐maximum bandpass) for natural phytoplankton populations from High Arctic, Grand Banks and Sargasso Sea waters, as well as for populations living in the lower margin of sea ice off Newfoundland, All spectra were similar in shape with a maximum at 425–450 nm, a broad shoulder to 550 nm, a valley from 600 to 650 nm and a rise at 675 nm. The error resulting from the use of spectrally averaged initial slope to predict photosynthesis under different optical and fluid dynamical conditions at sea is discussed.

Influence of the Phytoplankton Community Structure on the Spring and Annual Primary Production in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea

“…[] phytoplankton class‐specific photophysiological properties, provided an estimate of the primary production associated with each of the three phytoplankton size classes (P micro , P nano , and P pico ) that were then summed up to produce the total phytoplankton production (P tot ). More details of the light photosynthesis model used here can be found in Supporting Information [ Platt et al ., ; Lewis et al ., ; Morel , ; Uitz et al ., ]. The required daily surface Photosynthetically Available Radiation (PAR) was retrieved from the GlobColour merged ocean color satellite product (spatial resolution of 4 km, http://www.globcolour.info).…”

PHOTOSYNTHETIC PHYSIOLOGY OF PROROCENTRUM MARIAE‐LEBOURIAE (DINOPHYCEAE) DURING ITS SUBPYCNOCLINE TRANSPORT IN CHESAPEAKE BAY1

“…data). P-I relations, especially the light-limited slope, a, can be significantly influenced by spectral quality (Lewis et al 1985a, b), and there are published data that the wavelength distribution affects Prorocrntrum's photosynthetic characteristics (Meeson and Faust 1985).…”

Bio-optical modelling of primary production in the SW Finnish coastal zone, Baltic Sea: fast repetition rate fluorometry in Case 2 waters

“…Mitchell & Kiefer 1988, enables determination of the maximum quantum yield of photosynthesis (Bannister 1974, Kiefer & Mitchell 1983) describing the intrinsic light-utilisation potential of the algal photosynthetic machinery. Still more accurate probing of algal light-utilisation characteristics is achieved by the photosynthetic action spectra (Lewis et al 1985) and the spectral quantum yield (Schofield et al 1990), describing spectral dependence of the P-E response and algal light conversion efficiency respectively. The above-mentioned parameters have been used, along with irradiance, as the basis of numerous bio-optical models to derive estimates of PP (e.g.…”