Chapter 12 - Ocean Productivity

The creation (production) of organic (carbon) material by plants

through photosynthesis
• Plankton are the drifters of the sea
• Phytoplankton are photoautotrophs
– Get from light for food synthesis
– Microscopic plants form base of the marine
food web.
• Zooplankton are heterotrophs
– Get food from others
– Both unicellular and multicellular
• Bacterioplankton
– Includes Archaea and Bacteria
Plankton Deep Look
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• Plankton can be classified by size
– Picoplankton, < 2-3 microns
– Nanoplankton, 2-20 microns
– Microplankton (net plankton), 20-200 microns
– Macroplankton, > 200 microns

The Picophytoplankton are important in low biomass, nutrient-limited

regions of the open ocean.
The larger Microphytoplankton such as diatoms are important in high
biomass, nutrient-rich regions such as coastal upwelling regimes.

Thalassiosira, a diatom Ceratium, a dinoflagellate

Sargassum, a macroalgae
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• Common Phytoplankton members
include:
– Diatoms – coastal upwelling areas,
continental shelves
– Dinoflagellates – High productive areas
– Coccolithophorids
– Cyanobacteria
– Green algae

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• Diatoms (plant plankton)
– Cell wall is called the frustule, made of
silica
– Diatoms exhibit radial (centric diatoms)
or bilateral (pennate diatoms)
symmetry
– When division occurs, one of the
daughter cells gets smaller; eventually
sexual reproduction allows the cells to
return to the original large size
– 100,000 species

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• Dinoflagellates
– Cell wall is composed of cellulose in plate-like
structures (armored) or have no plates (naked)
– Autotrophic, mixotrophic, and heterotrophic
members
– Possess two flagella; strong vertical swimmers
– Most likely to cause harmful algal blooms and
bioluminescence

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• Dinoflagellates
Found in high productive Areas
1,500+ species

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• Coccolithophorids
– Cell wall is embedded with
calcium carbonate, forming plates
called coccoliths

– Coccoliths
– calcium carbonate

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• Cyanobacteria
– Most abundant phytoplankton in low-
nutrient, open ocean environments
– Play an important role as nitrogen
fixers
– Blue-Green scum on the water is
cyanobacteria

• Prochlorococcus
• CHl b
• Discovered in 1988
• Very small (~ 0.7 µm)
• Counted by flow cytometry
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 Primary Production
• Phytoplankton are primary producers, using pigments to
convert sunlight and inorganic matter into organic matter
• All primary producers that produce oxygen use the
pigment chlorophyll a
• Primary production can be divided into gross production
and net production
• Primary productivity is a rate; primary production is the
amount of organic material produced

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 Measuring Primary Productivity

• Primary productivity (the rate) is most often

measured by tracking the amount of oxygen
produced or the amount of carbon dioxide
consumed
• Redfield Ratio provides the typical ratio of
different elements, allowing for conversion
from one element to another
• Redfield Ratio:
O2:C:N:P = 109:41:7.2:1

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Radio-labeled carbon can
be used to measure
primary productivity by
tracking carbon dioxide
conversion to organic
carbon

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Oyxgen measurements
can be used to estimate
gross and net
productivity as well as
respiration

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 Phytoplankton Biomass
• Standing stock is the total biomass of
phytoplankton at any instant in time
– Function of growth, reproduction, death, grazing
• All photoautotrophs use
chlorophyll a; it provides a
direct measure of
standing stock
• Chlorophyll can be
estimated using
fluorescence or ocean
color
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Light absorption for Chlorophyll a, b
and other pigments
Chl-a
• Chl a
– most abundant
oceanic form
– Found in all
phytoplankton
• Chl b
– found in
cyanobacteria
– Absorbs additional
energy from
broader parts of
spectrum
• Measuring color of
ocean water can
tell us about Chl!
Depth (m) Measuring chlorophyll via fluorescence
 Controls on Productivity and Biomass
• Productivity is controlled by abiotic and
biotic factors:
– Light availability
– Temperature
– Mixing
– Nutrients
– Grazing

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 What controls the N. Atlantic
Spring Bloom?
• Winter
– High mixing (stormy)
– Lots of nutrients
– Low sunlight
• Spring bloom
– When light increases
– Uses up nutrients
• Summer
– Low mixing
– Plenty of sunshine
– Low nutrients
• Fall bloom
– When storms begin
– Then light decreases
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 Zooplankton are heterotrophs
– Holoplankton spend their entire lives in the plankton
– Meroplankton spend only a portion of their lives in the
plankton
• Zooplankton are often found in patches
• Zooplankton include unicellular and multicellular
organisms
• Life spans are generally short but some
zooplankton only produce once per year
• Zooplankton often accumulate in thin layers and
migrate vertically daily, forming a Deep
Scattering Layer
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 • Common zooplankton:
– Copepods
– Euphausiids (krill)
– Chaeotognaths (arrow worms)
– Foraminifera and radiolarians
– Ctenophores (comb jellies)
– Coelenterata (jellyfish)
– Larval organisms (fish, crabs, other invertebrates)

plankton 6:53

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 Bacterioplankton and Viruses
• Includes members of the Domains Bacteria and
Archaea
• Drive most of the biogeochemical cycles in the
ocean
• The microbial loop describes the processing of organic
matter by the bacterioplankton
• Viruses are major pathogens of marine microbes

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