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Adaptation of photosynthetic apparatus of marine ultraphytoplankton to natural light fields

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Abstract

The discovery of widely distributed populations of chroococcoid marine cyanobacteria (Synechococcus spp.) deep in the water column has focused attention on the autotrophic potential of small (<10 µm) size classes of marine phytoplankton1–5. These organisms contain light-harvesting pigments which specifically absorb in the blue and green regions of the spectrum6–11. Despite the fact that sea water acts as a monochromatic filter, allowing only the blue and blue-green wavelengths to penetrate12, essentially all estimates of the photosynthetic rate of ultraphytoplankton at depth have ignored the changing spectral composition of the natural light field and simulated only the in situ light intensity4,5,13. Here I show that the spectral composition of available light must be considered in estimates of water column productivity and that the depth of the euphotic zone varies between different ultraphytoplankton strains depending on the composition and organization of the photosynthetic apparatus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Whitman Laboratory, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA

    A. Michelle Wood

  2. Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, West Boothbay Harbor, Maine, 04575, USA

    A. Michelle Wood

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  1. A. Michelle Wood
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Wood, A. Adaptation of photosynthetic apparatus of marine ultraphytoplankton to natural light fields. Nature 316, 253–255 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/316253a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/316253a0

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