Light Rather Than Iron Controls
not found in spite of differences in phytoplankton species composition: at the Antarctic Polar Front, biomass was dominated by a diatom population of Fragilariopsis kerguelensis, whereas smaller cells, including chrysophytes, were relatively more abundant in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current beyond...
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Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
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2004
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Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1.1710 http://www.rug.nl/biologie/onderzoek/onderzoekgroepen/theoreticalbiology/pdf/vOijen_JPR_2004.pdf |
Summary: | not found in spite of differences in phytoplankton species composition: at the Antarctic Polar Front, biomass was dominated by a diatom population of Fragilariopsis kerguelensis, whereas smaller cells, including chrysophytes, were relatively more abundant in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current beyond the influence of frontal systems. Because mixing was often in excess of 100 m in the latter region, diatom cells may have been unable to fulfil their characteristically high Fe demand at low average light conditions, and thus became co-limited by both resources. Using a model that describes the C incorporation, the consistency was shown between the dynamics in the glucan pool in the field experiments and in laboratory experiments with an Antarctic diatom, Chaetoceros brevis. The glucan respiration rate was almost twice as high during the dark phase as during the light phase, which is consistent with the role of glucan as a reserve supplying energy and carbon skeletons for conti |
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