ISSN:
1573-5117
Keywords:
growth efficiency
;
areal quantum efficiency
;
light attenuation
;
Oscillatoria limnetica
;
shallow lakes
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Abstract The ‘true’ growth efficiency (c) relates the light energy absorbed by phytoplankton to the production of biomass corrected for constant energy requirement of maintenance. Continuous culture studies have shown that, at constant incident irradiance, the value of c for both prokaryotic and eukaryotic species is constant. Culture data for the relevant conditions of incident light may be used for directly estimating the growth rate from daily insolation of optically deep, fully mixed lakes, when the light absorption by the phytoplankton can be established. In order to examine the influence of vertical light attenuation and daily insolation on c, computations were made on a basis of a photosynthesis-irradiance curve of light-limited Oscillatoria limnetica. For steady state growth, the ‘true’ growth efficiency is linearly related to the areal quantum efficiency of photosynthesis (ϕ a ). The computations showed that ϕ a remains constant at fluctuating vertical light attenuation, no matter whether the concentration of tripton or phytoplankton changes. The effect of insolation is great: ϕ a is 0.108 mol O2/E at very low light, but only 0.014 mol O2/E at 400 W m−2 subsurface downward irradiance. The results imply that a c-value obtained from cultures for summer averaged insolation must be corrected: between cloudy and clear days the value may vary by a factor of 2. The ‘true’ growth efficiency for cultures will decrease by about 10% when the same daily irradiation is dosed sinusoidally instead of constantly.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00048785
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