Publication Date:
2002-04-27
Description:
More than 50 years ago, Harald Sverdrup developed a simple model for the necessary conditions leading to the spring bloom of phytoplankton. Although this model has been used extensively across a variety of aquatic ecosystems, its application requires knowledge of community compensation irradiance (IC), the light level where photosynthetic and ecosystem community loss processes balance. However, reported IC values have varied by an order of magnitude. Here, IC estimates are determined using satellite and hydrographic data sets consistent with the assumptions in Sverdrup's 1953 critical depth hypothesis. Retrieved values of IC are approximately uniform throughout much of the North Atlantic with a mean value of 1.3 mol photons meter-2 day-1. These community-based IC determinations are roughly twice typical values found for phytoplankton alone indicating that phytoplankton account for approximately one-half of community ecosystem losses. This work also suggests that important aspects of heterotrophic community dynamics can be assessed using satellite observations.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Siegel, D A -- Doney, S C -- Yoder, J A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2002 Apr 26;296(5568):730-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute for Computational Earth System Science and Department of Geography, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3060, USA. davey@icess.ucsb.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11976453" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Atlantic Ocean
;
Chlorophyll/analysis
;
*Ecosystem
;
*Eutrophication
;
*Light
;
Mathematics
;
Photosynthesis
;
Phytoplankton/*physiology
;
Seasons
;
*Seawater
;
Spacecraft
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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