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Carbon:chlorophyll a ratio, assimilation numbers and turnover times of Lake Kinneret phytoplankton

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Abstract

Carbon to chlorophyll a (C:Chl) ratios, assimilation numbers (A.N.) and turnover times of natural populations of individual species and taxonomic groups were extracted from a long-term database of phytoplankton wet-weight biomass, chlorophyll a concentrations, and primary production in Lake Kinneret, Israel. From a database spanning more than a decade, we selected data for samples dominated by a single species or taxonomic group. The overall average of C:Chl was highest for cyanophytes and lowest for diatoms, while chlorophytes and dinoflagellates showed intermediate values. When converting chlorophyll a to algal cellular carbon this variability should be taken into account. The variability in C:Chl within each phylum and species (when data were available) was high and the variability at any particular sampling date tended to be greater than the temporal variability. The average chlorophyll a-normalized rate of photosynthetic activity of cyanophytes was higher and that of the dinoflagellates lower than that of other phyla. Turnover time of phytoplankton, calculated using primary productivity data at the depth of maximal photosynthetic rate, was longest in dinoflagellates and shortest in cyanophytes, with diatoms and chlorophytes showing intermediate values. The more extreme C:Chl and turnover times of dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria in comparison with chlorophytes and diatoms should be taken into consideration when employed in ecological modeling.

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Acknowledgments

This composition was presented as a contributed paper at the Bat Sheva de Rothschild seminar on Phytoplankton in the Physical Environment—the 15th workshop of the International Association of Phytoplankton Taxonomy and Ecology (IAP). The data used in this study are part of the Lake Kinneret Monitoring Program funded by the Israeli Water and Sewage Authority. We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for providing a constructive criticism that helped improving the clarity and quality of the presentation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research Ltd., Yigal Allon Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, P.O. Box 447, Migdal, 14950, Israel

    Yosef Z. Yacobi & Tamar Zohary

Authors
  1. Yosef Z. Yacobi
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  2. Tamar Zohary
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Correspondence to Yosef Z. Yacobi.

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Guest editors: T. Zohary, J. Padisák & L. Naselli-Flores / Phytoplankton in the Physical Environment: Papers from the 15th Workshop of the International Association for Phytoplankton Taxonomy and Ecology (IAP), held at the Ramot Holiday Resort on the Golan Heights, Israel, 23–30 November 2008

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Yacobi, Y.Z., Zohary, T. Carbon:chlorophyll a ratio, assimilation numbers and turnover times of Lake Kinneret phytoplankton. Hydrobiologia 639, 185–196 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-009-0023-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-009-0023-3

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