Predicting marine phytoplankton community size structure from empirical relationships with remotely sensed variables
Open accessAbstract
The size composition of primary producers has a potential influence on the length of marine food chains and carbon sinking rates, thus on the proportion of primary production (PP) that is removed from the upper layers and available to higher trophic levels. While total rates of PP are widely reported, it is also necessary to account for the size composition of primary producers when developing food web models that predict consumer biomass and production. Empirical measurement of size composition over large space and time scales is not feasible, so one approach is to predict size composition from environmental variables that are measured and reported on relevant scales. Here, we describe relationships between the environment and the size composition of phytoplankton communities, using a collation of empirical measurements of size composition from sites that include polar, tropical and upwelling environments. The size composition of the phytoplankton communities can be predicted using two remotely sensed variables, chlorophyll-a concentration and sea surface temperature. Applying such relationships in combination allows prediction of the slope and location of phytoplankton size spectra and estimation of the percentage of different sized phytoplankton groups in communities.
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The median phytoplankton size (MD50) is a proxy for larval food quality.
“The median phytoplankton size (MD50) was used as a proxy for the larval food quality (Barnes et al., 2011).”
From Impacts of phytoplankton availability on bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) recruitment in the Indian Ocean (2024) · cites this paper as Barnes et al., 2011
The Methods section defines a phytoplankton cell-mass measure at which 50% of total biomass is reached, supporting the median-size component of the claim. The Discussion links phytoplankton size to food-chain structure, but the paper does not identify median size as a proxy for larval food quality. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Research works printed but not linked: 6
- Daufresne, M., Lengfellner, K. and Sommer, U. (2009) Global warming benefits the small in aquatic ecosystems. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 106, 12788-12793.
- Harris, R., Wiebe, P., Lenz, J. et al. (2000) ICES Zooplankton Methodology Manual. Academic Press, 684 pp.
- Jennings, S., Me ´lin, F., Blanchard, J. L. et al. (2008) Global-scale predictions of community and ecosystem properties from simple ecological theory. Proc. R. Soc. B, 275, 1375-1383.
- Lo ´pez-Urrutia, A ´., San Martin, E., Harris, R. P. et al. (2006) Scaling the metabolic balance of the oceans. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 103, 8739-8744.
- Me ´lin, F. (2003) Potential of remote sensing for the analysis of the optical properties of the ocean-atmosphere system and application to estimates of phytoplankton photosynthesis. PhD Thesis. Universite ´Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, 514 pp.
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Bioenergetics, Trophic Ecology, and Niche Separation of Tunas
(2016) · Advances in Marine Biology · doi:10.1016/bs.amb.2016.06.002 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Wang, Y., Zhang, Y., Geng, Z., & Zhu, J. (2024) · Frontiers in Marine Science · doi:10.3389/fmars.2024.1392273 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Barnes, C., Irigoien, X., De Oliveira, J. A. A., Maxwell, D., & Jennings, S.
- Affiliations
- Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (GB)
- AZTI (ES)
- University of East Anglia (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Barnes, Carolyn
- Venue
- Journal of Plankton Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2010-08-19
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 13-24
- ISSN
- 0142-7873 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-3774
- OpenAlex
- W2128344280
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 4.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- dspace.azti.es
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-sa
- Locations
- Journal of Plankton Research (publishedVersion)
- AZTI Institutional Repository (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Trinity's Access to Research Output (TARA) (Trinity College Dublin) (submittedVersion)
- UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council (NER/O/S/2001/00680)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Keywords
- phytoplankton size structure, size spectra, primary production, chlorophyll a, sea surface temperature, food web models, upwelling systems
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